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SIX   THOUSAND   YEARS 
OF    HISTORY 


EDGAR   SANDERSON,  A.  M. 

AUTHOR  "  HISTORY  OF  THE    BRITISH   EMPIRE" 

J.  P.  LAMBERTON,  A.  M. 

AUTHOR  "  HISTORIC  CHARACTERS  AND  FAMOUS  EVENTS,"    "  LITERATURE  OF  ALL  NATIONS,"  ETC, 

JOHN  McGOVERN 

AUTHOR  "THE  GOLDEN  LEGACY,"  "THE  TOILERS'  DIADEM,"  "FAMOUS  AMERICAN 
STATESMAN,"  ETC. 


AND  THE  FOLLOWING  EMINENT  AMERICAN  EDITORS 
AND  WRITERS: 

JOSEPH  M.  ROGERS,  A.  M. ;    LAURENCE  E.  GREENE  ;   M.  A.  LANE ; 

G.  SENECA  JONES,  A.  M.  ;  FREDERICK  LOGAN  ; 

WILLIAM  MATTHEWS  HANDY 

INTRODUCTION   BY 

MARSHALL  S.  SNOW,  A.  M. 

PROFESSOR  OF   HISTORY   WASHINGTON   UNIVERSITY   AND   DEAN  OF  THE   COLLEGE  ;     AUTHOR 
"CITY   GOVERNMENT,"    "POLITICAL   STUDIES,"     ETC.,    ETC. 


TEN    VOLUMES 


VOL.  II. 

MODERN   EUROPE 


E.  R.  DuMONT,  PUBLISHER 

PHILADELPHIA  CHICAGO  ST.  LOUIS 

IQOO 


COPYRIGHT,  1899 

BY 
EARL  R.  DuMONT 


Slack 

\.i.l3X 


5 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

CHARLES  I.  ON  THE  WAY  TO  EXECUTION  -  i 
LUTHER'S  EVENING  AT  HOME  -  -  21 
MILTON  VISITING  GALILEO  -  32 
DEFEAT  OF  THE  SPANISH  ARMADA  —  THE  ARK  ROYAL  ENGAG- 
ING THE  SHIP  OF  DON  ALONZO  DA  LEYVA  -  -  62 
THE  DEFENESTRATION  AT  PRAGUE — COMMENCEMENT  OF  THE 

THIRTY  YEARS'  WAR         -  96 
STORMING  THE  VILLAGE  OF  BLENHEIM,  THE  KEY  TO  THE  FRENCH 

POSITION,  BY  THE  SECOND  NORTH  BRITISH  DRAGOONS       -  121 

LOUIS  XIV.  AND  MOLIERE        -  154 

JOHN  MILTON           -                                                                      -  156 
THE  VICTORIOUS  PRUSSIAN  GRENADIERS  SINGING  A  "  TE  DEUM" 

AFTER  THE  BATTLE  OF  LEUTHEN  184 
VOLTAIRE  RECEIVES  MADAME  D'EPINAY  AT  LES  DELICKS         -  207 
ROUSSEAU  AT  MADAME  BASILE'S  209 
THE  MURDER  OF  MARAT    -                                                           -  240 
NAPOLEON  IN  EGYPT     -                                   -  256 
ADMIRAL  NELSON  ON  BOARD  THE  VICTORY  DURING  THE  BAT- 
TLE OF  TRAFALGAR       -                                                           -  264 
NAPOLEON  AT  THE  HEIGHT  OF  His  GLORY    -  272 
THE  SUNKEN  ROAD  OF  OHAIN,  BATTLE  OF  WATERLOO  -            -  280 
THE  CHARGE  OF  THE  FRENCH  CUIRASSIKRS  GRAVELOTTE  (SE- 
DAN)                                                               -                        -  336 
THE  CHARGE  OF  THE  LIGHT  BRIGADE  AT  BALAKLAVA  -           -  368 
BATTLE  OF  PLASSEY,  THE  NAWABS  ARTILLERY  ON  ITS  MOV- 
ABLE PLATFORM       -  448 
ATTACK  BY  LORD  KITCHENER'S  FORCE  UPON  THE  MAHDI         -  480 


MODERN  EUROPE 

TRANSITION  TO  MODERN  HISTORY 

The  chief  interest  of  modern  history  lies  in  the  fact 
that  it  presents  us  with  what  lies  nearest  to  ourselves,  and 
discloses  the  events  and  influences  that  have  directly  and 
immediately  created  the  conditions  under  which  mankind 
now  live  and  act.  The  main  feature  of  this  period  is  the 
growth  of  freedom.  The  revolt  of  human  spirits  in  the 
Sixteenth  Century,  known  as  the  Reformation,  was  the 
unfurling  of  the  standard  round  which  the  Nations  rally — 
the  banner  of  Free  Spirit,  face  to  face  with  its  Creator,  and 
determined  to  have  truth  found,  and  right  done,  without 
regard  to  human  tradition,  authority,  intervention,  or 
privilege.  The  essence  of  the  Reformation  is  the  dogma 
that  man  is,  in  his  very  nature,  destined  to  be  free.  From 
religious  freedom  came,  in  a  large  measure,  the  political 
rights  now  enjoyed  by  the  greatest  and  most  enlightened 
peoples  of  the  world.  The  great  political  fact  of  modern 
history  is  the  consolidation  of  monarchy,  in  the  form  of 
sovereigns  invested  with  an  authority  emanating  from 
the  State.  The  fixed  and  positive  principle  of  this  institu- 
tion is  the  exclusive  right  of  one  family  to  the  possession 
of  the  throne,  and  the  hereditary  succession  of  rulers,  fur- 
ther restricted  by  the  law  of  primogeniture.  This,  or  a 
President  with  similar  duties,  gives  to  the  State  an  immov- 
able center.  Sovereign  power  is  consigned  as  a  trust  to 
the  dynastic  family,  or  President,  while  Parliaments,  with 
various  degrees  of  controlling  power,  possess  security  that 
that  trust  shall  be  faithfully  discharged. 

VOI,.  2—1 


2  MODERN  EUROPE 

Ridi  indeed  has  been  the  harvest  reaped  in  freedom's 
field.  The  spirit  of  inquiry,  once  set  free,  has  changed 
and  blessed  the  whole  world.  To  this  we  owe,  in  modern 
literature,  some  of  the  noblest  creations  of  the  human 
intellect.  To  this  are  due  the  discoveries  of  science,  which 
have  made  life  longer,  easier,  brighter.  Hence  have  come, 
in  every  land,  the  triumphs  of  truth  and  genius  over 
prejudice  and  power.  This  it  is  which  has  created  the 
greatest  of  modern  republics,  and  has  filled  the  colonial 
world  with  flourishing  self-governing  peoples;  has  re- 
vealed the  secrets  of  Central  Africa  and  the  isles  of  the 
great  Pacific;  'has  diminished  distance  by  steam,  and 
destroyed  it  by  electricity;  has  struck  off  the  fetters  of  the 
slave;  and,  last  and  best,  has  made  the  Nations  know  each 
other,  and,  in  that  knowledge,  has  prepared  and  is  prepar- 
ing for  the  reign  of  universal  peace. 

The  Fifteenth  Century  may  be  well  regarded  as  a  time 
of  transition  from  mediaeval  to  modern  history,  because 
during  those  years  the  previous  growth  of  new  ideas 
resulted  in  discoveries,  changes,  and  inventions  which  in 
the  end  completely  revolutionized  the  social,  political,  and 
much  of  the  religious  condition  of  the  world,  and  brought 
about  in  most  of  its  essential  features  the  state  of  things 
under  which  we  now  exist.  Five  Centuries  ago,  for  good 
or  ill,  mankind  in  Western  and  in  Central  Europe  had 
come  to  thinking  for  themselves,  to  testing  the  claims  to 
reverence  of  long-established  systems  and  doctrines  in 
religion,  philosophy,  and  science,  to  rejecting  much  of 
what  was  old,  to  adopting  much  of  what  was  new,  and 
making  change  and  progress  the  watchwords  of  the 
world's  enduring  conflict  with  the  powers  of  nature  and 
the  problems  of  existence,  instead  of  clinging  to  tradition 
as  the  guide,  through  every  maze,  and  keeping  timidly  in 
view  the  landmarks  of  life's  voyagers  in  the  past.  The 


TRANSITION  TO  MODERN  HISTORY          3 

changes  which  ensued  under  this  condition  of  the  minds  of 
men  concern  alike  religion,  politics,  commerce,  the  social 
system,  literature,  art,  science,  and  war.  An  old  order  of 
things  passes  away  in  this  transition  time,  and  a  new  order 
comes.  Not  that  these  changes  all  occurred  within  the 
narrow  bounds — narrow  as  viewed  amidst  the  whole  vast 
field  of  history — of  this  one  hundred  years  of  the  Fifteenth 
Century.  Much  of  the  new  had  come  before  this  period 
begins;  far  more  has  happened  since  the  period  ended; 
but  none  the  less  that  hundred  years  is  the  time  when  men 
in  Western  and  in  Central  Europe  woke  up  to  many  of  the 
facts  around  them,  began  to  reason  freely  on  those  facts, 
and  to  act  boldly  from  the  judgments  formed  thereon,  and 
thus,  while  gathering  up  the  harvest  of  the  past,  sowed 
seed  for  crops  that  should  be  garnered  in  the  Centuries  to 
come. 

A  list  of  the  great  events  and  changes  belonging  to  this 
transition  period  will  show  the  supreme  importance  of  the 
time.  Many  of  them  are  related  to  each  other,  as  will  easily 
be  seen,  in  the  way  of  cause  and  effect ;  taken  together,  they 
changed  at  once  or  in  remote  results  the  aspect  and  condi- 
tion of  the  whole  world.  They  are  these:  The  general 
application  of  the  mariner's  compass  to  navigation,  with 
the  rediscovery  of  America  and  of  the  route  to  India  round 
the  Cape;  the  use  of  gunpowder  in  war,  with  the  general 
fall  of  feudalism  and  of  chivalry,  and  the  rise  of  standing 
armies  and  absolute  monarchies;  the  invention  of  print- 
ing, with  the  spread  of  books  and  of  education,  and  the 
general  revival  of  classical  learning;  the  beginning  of  the 
modern  State  system  of  Europe,  with  the  intrigues  of 
diplomacy  and  the  development  of  policy  known  as  the 
"balance  of  power" ;  the  establishment  of  social  order  and 
strong  centralized  government,  with  the  extinction  or 
depression  of  constitutional  liberties;  and  the  final  destruc- 


4  MODERN  EUROPE 

tion  of  the  long-decaying  Eastern  Empire  by  the  establish- 
ment of  a  powerful  Mahometan  Empire  in  Southeastern 
Europe,  shortly  before  Islamism  was  finally  driven  from 
Spain  in  the  southwest  of  the  Christian  continent. 

Of  this  array  of  topics  some  have  been  fully  treated,* 
and  need  now  only  to  be  mentioned  and  insisted  on  for 
recognition  and  remembrance  as  established  and  important 
facts;  we  may  here  include  the  change  in  the  art  of  war, 
the  virtual  end  of  feudalism  as  a  power  against  the  crown, 
the  extinction  of  chivalry  in  its  romantic  and  visible  forms, 
the  creation  of  standing  armies,  the  acquirement  of  abso- 
lute power  by  the  continental  sovereigns  and  the  gradual 
decay  of  the  representative  Assemblies  or  Parliaments,  the 
expulsion  of  the  Moors  from  Spain,  and  the  beginnings  of 
a  revival  of  classical  learning.  In  proceeding  to  deal  with 
the  rest  of  these  matters,  we  shall  take  first  a  glance  at  the 
position  of  the  different  States  of  Europe  about  the  year 
1450 — the  middle  of  the  Fifteenth  Century. 

In  the  West,  Portugal  had  entered  upon  the  brilliant 
career  of  geographical  discovery  which  has  given  this  little 
State  an  enduring  fame  in  the  pages  of  history.  After 
sharing,  as  the  Province  of  Lusitania,  the  fortunes  of  the 
rest  of  the  Peninsula,  and  being  conquered  by  the  Saracens, 
Portugal  became  an  independent  Kingdom  under 
Alphonso  I,  after  his  defeat  of  the  forces  of  Castile  in  1 137, 
and  his  great  victory  over  the  Moors  at  Ourique,  in  the 
south  of  Portugal,  in  1 139.  A  Cortes  or  Parliament  gave 
the  Kingdom  a  code  of  laws  and  a  constitution  in  1181, 
and  a  hereditary  monarchy  was  fully  established.  King 
Dionysius  of  Portugal  (reigned  1279-1325)  encouraged 
agriculture  (and  bears  the  honorable  title  of  the 
"Farmer"),  manufactures,  and  trade;  he  admitted  to  the 
Cortes  the  representatives  of  towns;  he  was  a  liberal  patron 

*See  volume  "Ancient  and  Mediaeval  History." 


TRANSITION  TO  MODERN  HISTORY          5 

of  learning,  and  founded  the  University  of  Coimbra  in 
1308.  The  Portuguese  have  styled  him,  from  his  wise 
and  beneficent  rule,  the  "Father  of  his  country."  John  I 
reigned  from  1385  to  1433,  and  did  much  for  Portugal. 
Lisbon  now  became  the  capital  instead  of  Coimbra.  The 
arms  of  Portugal  were  carried  into  Africa  in  the  capture 
of  Ceuta  (1415),  and  this  led  to  the  expeditions  of  dis- 
covery on  the  west  coast  of  that  continent,  which  were  the 
foundation  of  Portugal's  geographical  renown. 

France  was  about  to  become  a  great  and  compact  State 
in  the  final  expulsion  (1453)  of  the  English  from  their 
possessions  in  the  land  (save  at  Calais).  Italy  needs  little 
mention  at  this  point.  The  northwest  of  the  country  was 
mostly  held  by  the  Duchy  of  Milan  (or  The  Milanese,  as 
the  territory  is  often  called) ,  including  a  number  of  flour- 
ishing cities  under  the  rule  of  Francesco  Sforza,  a  brave 
and  unscrupulous  leader  of  mercenaries,  who  seized  his 
power  in  1450.  Venice  and  Florence  have  been  dealt  with 
in  the  volume  "Ancient  and  Mediaeval  History."  The 
Popes  held  the  center  of  the  land;  in  the  South  were  a 
Kingdom  of  Naples  (or  Sicily)  and  a  Kingdom  of  Sicily 
(in  the  island) — the  former  a  fighting  ground  between  a 
branch  of  the  Spanish  House  of  Aragon  and  the  Dukes  of 
Anjou,  of  the  ruling  House  of  France.  Burgundy  (soon 
to  cease  to  be  a  duchy)  in  the  east  of  France,  ruled  to  the 
North  also  what  is  now  French  Flanders,  Belgium,  and 
much  of  Holland.  The  rise  of  Switzerland  has  been 
given  in  the  preceding  volume  of  this  work. 

The  decay  of  the  power  of  Germany  as  an  Empire  has 
been  recorded.  The  Duchy  of  Austria  was  gaining 
ground  in  the  Southeast.  There  was  no  Prussia  yet,  only 
a  small  electoral  State  called  Brandenburg.  The  German 
Emperor,  who  was  Duke  of  Austria,  was  also  King  of  the 
Slavonic  State  of  Bohemia.  The  Magyar  Kingdom  of 


6  MODERN  EUROPE 

Hungary  was  a  strong  bulwark  for  Europe  against  the 
inroads  of  the  Turks. 

In  the  east  of  Europe  the  powerful  Slavonic  Kingdom 
of  Poland  included  much  of  what  is  now  Prussia  and  Rus- 
sia, and  was  also  serviceable  to  Europe  as  a  defense  against 
the  Turks.  This  repeated  mention  of  the  Moslem  invad- 
ers of  Europe  brings  us  to  the  account  of  their  presence 
there  in  a  force  so  formidable  and  so  perilous  to  Chris- 
tianity— after  stating  first  that  the  rise  of  Russia  to  impor- 
tance in  Europe  will  be  given  hereafter,  and  that  Norway, 
Sweden,  and  Denmark  (united  in  1397  by  the  treaty  called 
the  Union  of  Calmar,  a  town  in  southeast  of  Sweden) 
formed  a  realm  subject  to  fluctuations  due  to  frequent 
revolts  by  one  State  or  the  other.  Sweden  rises  to  impor- 
tance at  a  later  date  in  European  history.  The  invasion  of 
Europe  by  the  Turks  must  be  traced  back  to  the  inroads  of 
the  Asiatic  people  called  Mongols  or  Moguls  (generally 
known  in  Europe  as  Tartars)  in  the  Thirteenth  Century. 
This  warlike  race,  under  their  famous  leader,  Genghis 
Khan  (ruled  from  1204  to  1227),  conquered  the  north  of 
China  between  1209  and  1215,  and  then,  turning  west  and 
south,  overran  Turkestan,  captured  Bokhara  and  Samar- 
cand,  and  carried  their  ravages  into  Europe  as  far  as  the 
banks  of  the  Dnieper.  It  is  estimated  that  the  exploits  of 
Genghis  and  his  followers  caused  mankind  the  loss  of  over 
five  millions  of  lives  of  every  age  and  both  sexes.  It  is 
certain  that  in  the  cities  of  Central  Asia  they  destroyed 
countless  treasures  of  literature  and  art.  In  religion 
these  Mongols  became,  in  the  end,  Mohammedan.  Ogdai, 
the  successor  of  Genghis,  led  his  warriors  on  through 
Russia,  Poland,  and  Hungary,  and  ravaged  the  land,  but 
made  no  settlement  except  in  part  of  Russia.  In  Asia  the 
Mongols  drove  before  them  from  the  east  of  the  Caspian 
Sea  the  Turks,  who  finally  overwhelmed  the  Christians  of 


TRANSITION  TO  MODERN  HISTORY          7 

Palestine  in  1243.  In  1258  a  descendant  of  Genghis  Khan 
took  Bagdad.  In  Asia  Minor  the  Kingdom  of  the  Sel- 
jukian  Turks  was  overthrown,  and  then  the  power  of 
the  Ottoman  Turks  began.  One  of  the  emirs  (leaders) 
of  the  Turkomans  who  had  been  driven  from  their  abodes 
by  the  Mongols  was  named  Othman.  He  was  simply  a 
bold  and  successful  captain  of  a  band  of  robbers,  who,  in 
A.  D.  1300,  made  himself  master  of  much  of  Asia  Minor, 
founding  upon  the  ruins  of  the  Saracen,  Seljuk,  and  Mon- 
gol power  the  Empire  of  the  Ottoman  Turks  in  Asia.  Oth- 
man died  in  1326,  and  his  successor  fixed  the  capital  of  the 
Sultanate  at  Brusa  (or  Broussa)  in  Bithynia.  Religious 
f atanticism  and  a  passion  for  military  glory  were  the  spurs 
to  action  and  success  with  this  new  dynasty  of  conquerors, 
and  the  Eastern  Empire  of  Rome  was  in  no  condition  to 
stay  their  progress  westward,  being  weak,  effete,  and 
ready  to  vanish  away. 

The  enterprise  and  prudence  of  the  Turkish  rulers 
were  conspicuous.  A  standing  force  of  picked  infantry  was 
raised  from  among  the  bravest  and  strongest  of  the  Chris- 
tian children  whom  the  Turks  enslaved,  and  brought  up  as 
Mohammedans  with  a  thorough  training  in  arms.  This 
formidable  body  of  troops  was  named  the  Janissaries,  or 
"new  soldiers,"  and  soon  became  a  terror  to  all  opponents. 
It  was  the  valient  Soliman  who  first  invaded  Europe  in 
1355,  and  secured  his  connection  with  Asia  Minor  by  forti- 
fying the  Dardanelles.  In  1360  the  Sultan  Amurath  I 
took  Hadrianople,  and  made  it  the  capital  of  the  Ottoman 
realm  in  Europe.  At  the  head  of  his  Janissaries  he  swept 
on  into  Macedonia  and  Servia,  and  gained  a  great  victory 
at  Kossova  (in  Servia)  in  1389,  over  a  confederacy  of 
Slavonian  peoples.  The  Sultan  Bajazet  (ruled  1389  to 
1402)  invaded  Thessaly,  reached  the  walls  of  Constanti- 
nople, fortified  the  Bosphorus,  and  made  the  Greek  Em- 


8  MODERN  EUROPE 

peror  pay  tribute.  Thus,  by  the  year  1400,  the  Greek 
Empire  was  reduced  to  the  possession  of  Constantinople, 
a  part  of  Greece,  and  a  few  outlying  fragments  to  west  of 
Turkey  and  in  northeast  of  Asia  Minor. 

A  temporary  respite  came  in  the  downfall  of  the 
haughty  Bajazet  before  the  attack  of  a  new  foe  from  inner 
Asia,  the  famous  Timour  the  Tartar,  or  Tamerlane,  who 
by  an  irruption  into  Asia  Minor  diverted  Bajazet  from 
the  siege  of  Constantinople  in  1402,  defeated  and  captured 
him  at  the  battle  of  Angora,  and  carried  him  about  for 
public  show  in  a  cage.  Amurath  II  (died  in  1451)  did 
much  to  strengthen  Turkish  rule  in  Europe.  Under  his 
son  and  successor  Mohammed  II,  the  last  of  the  Eastern 
Empire  fell.  Mohammed  II  became  Sultan  in  1451,  when 
Constantine  (XI)  Palasologus  was  Emperor,  and  at  once 
set  himself  to  complete  the  Turkish  conquest.  With  a 
vast  army,  supported  by  a  powerful  fleet  and  aided  by 
heavy  cannon  (now  first  used,  perhaps,  with  really  great 
effect  in  battering  walls),  he  assailed  Constantinople  in  a 
siege  of  fifty-three  days'  duration.  On  May  29,  1453,  the 
great  city  was  stormed  by  the  Turks ;  Constantine  fell  fight- 
ing; a  fearful  slaughter  of  the  citizens  was  made;  the  splen- 
did church  built  by  Justinian  became  the  Mohammedan 
Mosque  of  Saint  Sophia;  and  the  Ottoman  Empire  was 
established  in  Europe,  with  Constantinople  for  its  capital, 
as  a  great  and  formidable  power.  Before  his  death  in 
1481  the  Turks  had  conquered  the  Morea,  the  rest  of  Asia 
Minor  (Empire  of  Trebizond,  in  northeast),  Bosnia, 
Epirus,  and  the  islands  of  Negropont  and  LemnO'S. 

During  the  greater  part  of  what  is  called  ancient  his- 
tory and  the  Middle  Ages,  the  historic  stage  was  limited  to 
Europe,  a  part  of  Western  Asia,  and  a  strip  of  Northern 
Africa.  The  travels  of  Marco  Polo  in  Asia,  between  1271 
and  1295,  had  first  given  the  modern  world  some  glim- 


TRANSITION  TO  MODERN  HISTORY          9 

mering  of  light  on  the  remote  east  of  Asia-,  and  the  close 
study  by  Christopher  Columbus  of  Polo's  famous  book 
influenced  the  great  discoverer  in  his  desire  for  explora- 
tion. The  English  traveler,  Sir  John  de  Mandeville  (born 
at  St.  Alban's  about  1300),  traveled  much  in  Asia  and 
northern  Africa,  and  his  accuracy  in  describing  what  he 
saw  himself  has  been  confirmed  by  travelers  in  modern 
times.  The  Arabs  were  familiar  with  the  fact  that  Africa 
might  be  circumnavigated,  and  the  Jewish  traders  to 
Mozambique  by  the  east  route  first  made  known  in  modern 
Europe  the  existence  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  America 
had  been  discovered  about  A.  D.  1000  by  Scandinavians, 
who  reached  the  shore  near  where  Boston  now  stands,  but 
so  low  was  the  state  of  intelligence  in  Europe  that  the  very 
memory  of  their  voyages  had  been  altogether  lost.  It  is 
quite  uncertain  at  what  epoch  the  polarity  of  the  magnet 
first  became  known  in  Europe.  It  was  certainly  known  to 
a  few  as  early  as  the  Thirteenth  Century,  and  was,  perhaps, 
first  applied  to  commerce  in  the  Fourteenth  Century  by  the 
Genoese  navigators,  who  steered  into  the  Atlantic  Ocean 
toward  England  and  Flanders,  and  began  to  interchange 
the  exports  of  London,  Bruges,  and  Alexandria.  It  was 
not,  however,  generally  used  in  navigation  till  early  in  the 
Fifteenth  Century. 

Prince  Henry,  known  as  "Henry  the  Navigator,"  third 
son  of  John  I  (or  John  the  Great)  of  Portugal,  led  the  way 
in  plans  of  maritime  discovery.  Portuguese  colonies  were 
settled  in  Madeira  in  1420,  at  the  Azores  in  1433,  and 
about  the  same  time  on  the  Gold  Coast  of  Guinea.  Before 
the  death  of  this  enlightened  man  in  1463  the  full  knowl- 
edge of  the  Western  African  Coast  was  thus  pushed 
onward  from  Cape  Nun  (opposite  the  Canary  Islands)  to 
Cape  Bojador,  then  to  Cape  Blanco  and  Cape  Verde,  and 
southward  nearly  to  the  equator.  Under  John  II,  of 


io  MODERN  EUROPE 

Portugal  (reigned  1481-1495),  perhaps  the  ablest  King 
the  country  has  had,  the  expeditions  of  geographical  dis- 
covery were  continued  with  zeal  and  with ,  scientific 
method.  Portugal  received  as  citizens  many  of  the  learned 
and  enterprising  Jews,  who  had  been  driven  from  Spain, 
and  she  derived  benefit  from  her  tolerance  of  spirit. 
Bartholomew  Diaz  doubled  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  in 
1487,  and  when  the  coast  was  found  to  run  northeast,  giv- 
ing a  good  prospect  of  success  in%-eaching  India,  the  King 
changed  the  name  of  the  storm-beaten  headland  from 
Cabo  Tormentoso,  or  Cape  of  Storms,  to  Cabo  de  Boa 
Esperanqa,  or  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  In  the  following 
reign  Vasco  da  Gama  reached  round  the  Cape  the  port  of 
Calicut  on  the  Malabar  (southwest)  coast  of  India,  and 
the  long-sought  object  of  a  sea  route  to  Southern  Asia  was 
thus  attained  in  1498.  To  anticipate,  for  a  moment,  the 
grand  achievement  of  Columbus,  we  will  mention  that  the 
Portuguese  Admiral  Alvarez  de  Cabral,  in  April,  1500, 
on  a  voyage  to  the  East  Indies,  made  his  way  across  the 
Atlantic  to  Brazil,  which  had  been  discovered  three  months 
before  by  Pingon,  one  of  the  companions  of  Columbus. 
The  Portuguese  dominion  in  India  was  established  by  the 
energy  and  courage  of  Almeida  de  Abrantes,  the  first 
Viceroy,  between  1506  and  1509,  and  of  his  greater  suc- 
cessor Albuquerque,  who  conquered  Goa  and  made  it  the 
capital  of  the  Portuguese  dominions  in  the  East  in  1511. 
In  the  Persian  Gulf  they  made  settlements  at  Ormuz  and 
Muscat;  at  Madras,  in  the  Bay  of  Bengal;  in  Ceylon,  the 
Moluccas,  Java,  Sumatra,  Celebes,  and  Borneo.  The  Por- 
tuguese began  to  trade  with  China  in  1517,  and  with 
Japan  in  1542.  Most  of  the  above  possessions  were  after- 
ward lost  to  the  rising  power  of  the  Dutch  in  the  Seven- 
teenth Century. 

Christopher  Columbus  was  an  ingenious,  enterprising, 


TRANSITION  TO  MODERN  HISTORY         11 

and  bold  native  of  Genoa,  but  Spain  claims  the  merit  of 
his  great  discovery,  because  it  was  made  with  the  assist- 
ance of  her  Queen,  Isabella*  About  1474  Columbus  seems 
to  have  formed  his  plan  of  reaching  the  East  Indies  entirely 
by  sea,  a  project  to  which  he  was  urged  by  the  desire  of 
benefiting  the  merchants  of  Genoa,  whose  land  trade  with 
India  by  way  of  the  Crimea  and  the  Caspian  Sea  had  been 
greatly  injured  by  the  irruptions  of  the  Tartars  and  the 
Turks.  It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  Columbus  started  with 
no  idea  of  discovering  a  new  world,  but  simply  of  mak- 
ing his  way  to  India  by  a  Western  route  in  rivalry  of  the 
Portuguese  efforts  to  reach  the  same  goal  round  the  south- 
ern point  of  Africa.  It  is  also  certain  that  Columbus 
never  knew  the  nature  of  his  own  discovery,  but  died  in 
the  belief  that  it  was  actually  some  part  of  Asia;  Amerigo 
Vespucci,  the  Florentine,  held  the  same  opinion,  and  their 
immediate  successors  believed  Mexico  to  be  a  part  of 
Marco  Polo's  China. 

The  first  expedition  that  ever  sailed  round  the  world 
was  that  which  started  under  the  command  of  the  famous 
Portuguese  navigator  Fernando  de  Magalhaens  (or 
Magellan),  who  did  not  live  to  complete  the  voyage.  He 
entered  the  service  of  Spain  in  1519,  sailed  southwest  for 
the  Spice  Islands  of  Asia,  passed  through  the  Strait  of 
Magellan  into  the  Pacific  (his  own  name  for  the  calm 
expanse  of  water  that  he  saw),  and  across  that  vast  ocean 
reached  the  Philippine  Islands  in  1521,  where  he  died  in 
a  struggle  with  the  natives — according  to  the  statement  of 
his  followers,  who  have  been  suspected  of  his  murder. 
His  lieutenant,  Sebastian  d'Elcano,  took  the  ship  back  to 
Spain  by  September,  1522,  after  achieving  the  first  circum- 
navigation of  the  globe.  The  earth  was  at  last  proved 
to  be  round  by  evidence  which  could  not  be  denied. 
*See  Volume  "  Famous  Women  of  the  World." 


12  MODERN  EUROPE 

These  discoveries  of  new  lands  and  new  markets  for 
goods  gave  a  great  impulse  to  trade  and  manufactures, 
increased  the  wealth  of  Europe,  and  soon  caused  the  build- 
ing of  powerful  navies  by  the  chief  new  maritime  States, 
Spain,  Portugal,  England,  and  Holland.  Sovereigns  and 
statesmen  began  to  see  that  commerce  was  a  great  pro- 
moter of  prosperity  and  power  for  Nations,  and  the  colon- 
ization of  the  world  began  in  the  East  and  the  West.  The 
effect  of  the  adoption  of  the  route  to  India  round  the  Cape 
of  Good  Hope  was  disastrous  to  the  Republic  of  Venice. 
The  shortest  and  safest  road  to  India  from  the  Mediter- 
ranean was  by  the  Red  Sea  and  the  Arabian  Sea,  and 
Venice  had  the  command  of  the  ports  of  Syria  and  Egypt 
through  which  the  traffic  of  India  passed  to  and  from 
Central  and  Western  Europe.  By  the  adoption  of  the 
new  route  round  Africa,  Venice  lost  her  commercial 
supremacy;  Egypt,  lately  an  avenue  to  India,  was  left  out 
in  the  cold;  the  commercial  monopoly  of  the  European 
Jews  was  broken  down;  Western  Europe,  instead  of  the 
Mediterranean,  became  the  center  of  the  world's  trade,  and 
the  British  Islands  were  soon  put  in  the  front  of  the  great 
new  movement,  and  in  a  position  to  obtain  the  commercial 
and  maritime  supremacy  of  the  globe.  The  Dutch 
acquired  at  first  the  carrying-trade  of  goods  which  the 
Portuguese  brought  from  the  East  to  Lisbon,  and  the  profit 
was  such  that  the  wide-'awake  Hollanders  determined  to 
get  the  Eastern  trade  and  settlements  into  their  own  hands 
as  soon  as  they  could  oust  their  rivals  of  the  Peninsula. 

Much  was  done  for  the  revival  of  letters  by  the  enlight- 
ened and  munificent  Medicis,  but  it  was  the  fall  of  Con- 
stantinople that  gave  a  great  impulse  to  the  study  of  classi- 
cal learning  which  had  long  been  gradually  rising.  The 
Latin  language,  in  which  all  legal  instruments  were  drawn 
up,  and  which  all  ecclesiastics  used  in  their  correspondence, 


TRANSITION  TO  MODERN  HISTORY         13 

had  never  ceased  to  be  familiar  to  men  of  culture.  During 
the  dark  ages,  however,  from  the  Sixth  to  the  Eleventh 
Century,  it  is  rare  to  meet  with  a  quotation  from  any  class- 
ical author  of  Rome;  her  greatest  writers  had  almost 
ceased  to  be  read.  During  the  Twelfth  Century,  a  change 
took  place,  and  classical  Latin  authors  began  to  be  read,  and 
the  language  to  be  written  with  greater  purity.  Frequent 
quotations  are  made  from  Livy,  Cicero,  Pliny,  and  others. 
Virgil  began  to  be  imitated,  at  a  great  distance,  in  Latin 
verse  compositions.  About  the  middle  of  the  Fourteenth 
Century,  a  zealous  desire  to  restore  the  ancient  learning 
begins  to  appear.  The  copying  oi  books  had  become  a 
regular  trade,  and  books  were  much  lowered  in  price,  an 
improvement  which  was  aided  by  the  introduction  of  paper 
made  from  linen  rags.  Translations  from  classical  authors 
began  to  be  made.  It  was  south  of  the  Alps,  in  Italy,  that 
literature  really  flourished;  France  came  next,  and  Eng- 
land and  Germany  were,  in  comparison,  very  backward.  • 
The  scarcity  of  manuscripts  of  the  classics  was  the 
great  difficulty  to  the  early  pioneers  of  the  new  movement. 
They  lay  hidden  away  in  monasteries,  in  charge  of  those 
who  did  not  value  them,  and  were  difficult  to  get  at.  Pe- 
trarch in  his  age  (Fourteenth  Century)  took  great  pains  to 
preserve  the  remains  of  authors  who  were  perishing  from 
neglect  and  time.  Another  great  Florentine  writer,  Boc- 
caccio, aided  this  work,  and  the  errors  made  by  transcrib- 
ers were  corrected  by  these  Italian  scholars,  to  a  great  ex- 
tent, so  as  to  furnish  an  intelligible  text  of  the  Latin 
classics  a  Century  before  the  invention  of  printing.  In  the 
Fifteenth  Century  more  still  was  done  for  classical  learn- 
ing. The  Italian  scholars  gave  up  their  lives  to  the  rescue 
of  manuscripts  from  a  mouldering  death,  and  to  the  rer 
vival  of  philology.  To  Italy,  far  more  than  to  any  other 
country,  the  world  of  letters  owes  the  present  possession 


14  MODERN  EUROPE 

of  the  recovered  treasures  of  classical  writing.  To  name 
one  more  of  these  illustrious  and  devoted  men  in  what  was 
then  the  most  enlightened  country  in  the  world,  Poggio 
Bracciolini,  in  the  early  part  of  the  Fifteenth  Century,  dis- 
covered and  rescued  from  destruction  by  damp  and  dirt 
the  entire  work  of  Quintilian,  twelve  comedies  of  Plautus, 
the  works  of  Lucretius  and  Silius  Italicus,  and  many  other 
less  known  writers. 

The  Greek  language  had  been  all  but  forgotten  in  west- 
ern Europe.  A  few  of  the  schoolmen  knew  some  Greek, 
but  the  ignorance  of  it,  even  in  Italy,  was  almost  universal, 
and  hardly  a  line  from  a  Greek  poet  is  found  quoted  be- 
tween the  Sixth  and  the  Fourteenth  Centuries.  As  with 
the  classical  Latin,  so  with  the  Greek,  Petrarch  and  Boc- 
caccio led  the  way  in  a  revival  of  the  language,  and  in  the 
restoration  of  its  learning.  They  both  studied  it  themselves, 
Petrarch  reading  Plato  with  a  scholar  from  Constantino- 
ple, and  Boccaccio  causing  public  lectures  on  Homer  to  be 
delivered  in  Florence.  A  little  before  the  end  of  the  Four- 
teenth Century,  a  scholar  from  Constantinople  named 
Emanuel  Chrysoloras,  taught  Greek  literature  at  Florence, 
and  then,  in  succession,  at  Pavia,  Venice,  and  Rome.  A 
taste  for  the  new  learning  was  created;  Italian  scholars 
went  to  the  fountain-head  at  Constantinople,  to  drink 
deeper  yet  of  the  new  Pierian  spring,  and  returned  to  their 
native  land,  not  only  with  stores  of  learning  in  their  heads, 
but  with  rich  treasures  of  manuscripts  in  their  hands.  In 
1423,  one  of  the  zealous  students  brought  home  to  Venice 
nearly  240  volumes  of  classical  lore.  The  fulness  of  time 
was  come  for  the  general  revival  of  Greek  literature  when 
the  Ottoman  Turks  captured  Constantinople,  and  drove 
in  flight  over  Europe  a  great  number  of  scholars  with  their 
books.  Some  of  the  popes,  especially  Nicholas  V,  in  the 
Fifteenth  Century  encouraged  the  Greek  learning,  and 


TRANSITION  TO  MODERN  HISTORY         15 

Bessarion,  Theodore  Gaza,  and  George  of  Trebizond 
spread  the  knowledge  of  it  at  Florence,  Naples,  and  Rome, 
before  the  fall  of  Constantinople.  Of  the  Greek  exiles, 
Lascaris  was,  perhaps,  the  most  illustrious.  From  Italy 
the  zeal  for  the  restoration  of  classical  literature  had 
spread  slowly  to  France,  England,  and  Germany :  a  Greek 
professor  was  first  appointed  at  the  University  of  Paris  in 
1458,  and  it  was  later  still  that  Greek  was  taught  at  Ox- 
ford by  Grocyn  and  Colet,  and  by  Erasmus  at  Cambridge. 
Block-printing,  or  printing  from  blocks  each  present- 
ing perhaps  a  whole  page,  had  been  known  for  many 
Centuries  in  China  and  for  some  ages  in  Europe  before 
the  invention  of  the  moveable  metal  types  which  constitute 
in  wide  practical  value  the  art  of  printing.  As  in  the  case 
of  many  other  great  improvements,  it  is  impossible  to 
assign  to  the  real  author  with  absolute  certainty  the  glory 
of  the  invention  of  this  method  of  printing.  It  is  generally 
given  now  to  John  Gutenberg  of  Mainz  (Mentz  or  May- 
ence)  in  Germany.  Peter  Schoffer,  also  of  Mentz,  made 
the  immense  improvement  of  inventing  the  casting  of 
types,  instead  of  the  former  method  of  cutting  each  indi- 
vidual type  in  wood  or  metal,  a  troublesome  and  expensive 
process.  The  earliest  known  complete  printed  book  is 
what  is  called  the  Mazarin  Bible,  because  the  first  copy  was 
discovered  in  the  library  founded  by  Cardinal  Mazarin 
at  Paris — its  probable  date  is  between  1450  and  1455. 
Several  copies  have  since  come  to  light.  In  1462  appeared 
the  second  Mentz  Bible  (printed,  as  the  Mazarin  probably 
was,  at  the  press  of  Gutenberg  and  Faust,  or  Fust),  con- 
sidered to  be  the  first  book  printed  with  the  cast-metal 
types.  In  1465  the  same  press  issued  the  first  printed 
classical  work,  an  edition  of  Cicero's  "Offices,"  a  treatise 
on  moral  duties.  From  Germany  the  art  of  printing  was 
carried  at  once  to  Italy,  and  before  the  end  of  the  Fifteenth 


16  MODERN  EUROPE 

Century  many  of  the  classical  authors  had  been  copied  in 
the  new  form  from  which  was  to  make  their  treasures  of 
wisdom  and  of  style  immortal. 

There  is  little  need  to  dwell  on  the  results  that  have 
proceeded  from  the  invention  of  the  art  of  printing;  they 
amount  to  an  intellectual  transformation  of  the  world. 
Two  immediate  or  not  remote  effects  may  be  noticed. 
Books  were  multiplied  and  cheapened,  and  not  only  was 
the  new  demand  for  mental  light  supplied,  but  the  in- 
creased supply  created  a  demand ;  cheap  books  bred  read- 
ers, and  as  the  press  made  books  more  abundant,  there 
were  more  persons  to  whom  they  became  a  necessary  of 
life.  Again,  the  mode  of  communicating  knowledge  was 
changed;  the  pulpit  was  to  a  great  extent  superseded  by 
the  printing  press. 

It  is  easy  to  see  how  this  affected  the  ecclesiastical 
world.  The  new  ideas  were  silently  spread  by  printing, 
nor  could  the  exertions  of  the  church  in  the  pulpit  either 
prevent  or  greatly  counteract  the  working  of  what  the 
orthodox  held  to  be  poison.  The  effect  of  oral  eloquence 
is  powerful  while  it  lasts,  but  it  is  transient  in  its  impres- 
sion, and  troublesome  to  produce — the  hearer  must  be 
brought  to  the  speaker,  and  the  memory  carries  little 
away.  The  printed,  like  the  written,  character  abides, 
and  it  can  be  read,  and  thought  over,  and  read  again  in 
the  leisure  of  the  fireside  and  the  tranquillity  of  home. 
The  political  effect  of  the  invention  of  printing  was  that 
the  government  was  at  once  brought  into  direct  relations 
with  the  governed  without  the  intervention  of  ecclesiastical 
authority.  The  production  of  newspapers  in  the  Seven- 
teenth Century  was  a  development  which,  in  the  most 
modern  days,  has  acquired  a  prodigious  influence.  But 
we  are  dealing  now  with  the  close  of  the  Fifteenth  Cen- 
tury, when  Europe,  and  through  Europe  the  world,  was 


TRANSITION  OF  MODERN  HISTORY         17 

about  to  enter,  through  the  great  awakening  of  the  human 
mind,  on  a  new  career  of  rapid  progress  and  unequaled 
interest,  of  changeful  intellectual,  physical,  and  moral  con- 
flict, which  should  affect  in  large  degree  the  future  of  man- 
kind. For  from  printing  came  reading,  and  from  read- 
ing came,  for  good  or  for  evil,  that  which  is  called  the 
Reformation — the  great  revolution  in  religious  matters 
which  for  ages  set  enmity  between  the  Nations  of  Europe. 
As  the  chief  States  of  Europe  became  settled  in  the 
form  of  strong  centralized  governments,  having  absolute 
monarchs  at  the  head  of  them,  with  standing  armies  (save 
in  England)  to  enforce  their  will,  and  with  the  succession 
to  the  throne  hereditary  in  particular  lines,  there  was  de- 
veloped that  curious  and  pernicious  disease  of  inter-mon- 
archical (and  sometimes  international)  jealousy  known 
as  the  theory  oi  the  "balance  of  power."  It  was  held  that 
no  single  State  must  be  allowed  to  acquire  such  power  as 
to  make  it  formidable  to  others,  and  thus,  in  the  way  of 
alliances  brought  about  by  royal  intermarriage  or  by  the 
other  resources  of  diplomacy,  continual  efforts  were  made 
to  thwart  an  ambitious  power  and  secure  its  rivals  against 
unjust  pretensions  and  undue  aggrandizement.  The  re- 
sults were  frequent  wars,  waged  by  aspiring  sov- 
ereigns for  their  own  purposes  with  little  or  no  regard 
to  the  people's  real  interests,  and  a  complicated  condition 
of  international  relations  which  is  known  as  the  "states- 
system  of  Europe." 

Voi,.  2  —  2 


SPAIN  AND  THE  REFORMATION 

Spain  comes  before  us  in  brilliant  guise  as  the  greatest 
power  in  Europe  during  most  of  the  Sixteenth  Century. 
She  had  become  a  compact  State  under  Ferdinand  and 
Isabella  at  the  end  of  the  Fifteenth  Century.  Soon  after 
the  discovery  of  America  Spain  became  the  possessor  of 
a  new  Empire  beyond  the  Atlantic.  Between  1519  and 
1521  the  brave,  able,  perfidious,  and  cruel  Fernando  Cortez 
conquered  Mexico;  the  equally,  faithless  and  barbarous 
adventurer  Pizarro  took  possession  of  Peru  in  1531-32. 
The  ascendency  which  Spain  acquired  in  Europe  was 
gained  by  undoubted  superiority  in  all  the  arts  of  policy 
and  war.  As  Italy  was  first  in  the  fine  arts,  and  Germany 
in  the  new  boldness  of  theological  speculation,  so  Spain 
was,  in  the  Sixteenth  Century,  the  land  of  soldiers  and  of 
statesmen.  The  diplomatists  O'f  Spain  surpassed  in  skill 
those  of  all  other  countries  in  Europe.  The  Spanish  in- 
fantry was  the  most  formidable  military  force  in  existence. 
The  Spaniard  of  this  age,  moreover,  took  to  himself  the 
arts  and  the  literature  of  the  Italy  which  he  subdued,  and 
the  great  men  of  Spain  were  often  distinguished  not  less 
as  writers  than  as  soldiers  and  as  politicians.  Valor, 
intelligence,  energy — displayed  in  such  wise  as  to  make 
the  name  of  "Spaniard"  at  once  hateful  and  terrible  even 
to  the  stout-hearted  Englishman  of  that  age — made  Spain 
in  the  Sixteenth  Century  the  first  country  in  the  world. 

The  growth  of  Spain's  power  in  Europe  must  now  be 
traced.  In  1512  Ferdinand  conquered  nearly  all  the  King- 
dom of  Navarre,  so  that  the  whole  Peninsula  except  Port- 


SPAIN  AND  THE  REFORMATION  19 

ugal  had  come  under  his  power.  Spain  had  already  begun 
to  make  conquests  abroad.  Gonsalvo  de  Cordova,  called 
by  the  Spanish  el  gran  Capitan  (the  great  Captain),  was 
one  of  the  most  brilliant  warriors  of  the  age.  In  1502  he 
drove  the  French  out  of  the  south  of  Italy.  In  1504  he 
completed  the  conquest  for  Spain  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Naples,  and  ruled  there  as  viceroy  with  a  mild,  just,  and 
magnanimous  sway  which  greatly  strengthened  the  Span- 
ish hold  on  the  country.  In  1516  the  Spanish  throne  came, 
by  the  death  of  Ferdinand,  to  his  and  Isabella's  grandson, 
the  Prince  known  in  history  as  the  Emperor  Charles  V. 
Charles  V  was  born  at  Ghent  in  1500,  being  the  eldest 
son  of  Philip,  Archduke  of  Austria,  and  of  Joanna,  the 
daughter  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  of  Spain.  Philip  was 
son  of  the  Emperor  Maximilian  of  Germany  by  Mary, 
daughter  of  Charles  the  Bold,  last  Duke  of  Burgundy. 
After  her  father's  death  Mary  was  ruler  of  the  Netherlands 
(or  Low  Countries),  and  to  these  Philip  (the  father  of 
Charles  V)  succeeded.  The  young  Prince  had  thus,  by 
his  birth,  the  claim  to  a  splendid  inheritance.  His  father's 
(Philip)  death  gave  him  the  Netherlands  (the  territory 
including  what  is  now  both  Holland  and  Belgium) ;  his 
grandfather  Ferdinand's  death  (in  1516)  gave  him  Spain; 
on  the  death  of  his  grandfather  Maximilian  in  1519  he 
was  elected  Emperor  of  Germany.  In  Italy  he  had  the 
Kingdom  of  the  Two  Sicilies  (the  island  and  the  King- 
dom of  Naples  on  the  southern  mainland)  and  Sardinia. 
His  rival  for  the  dignity  of  Emperor  had  been  Francis  I, 
King  of  France,  but  the  electoral  princes  of  Germany  chose 
Charles  of  Spain  (as  his  title  then  was),  and  he  was 
crowned  Emperor  at  Aix-Chapelle  in  1520,  being  then 
twenty  years  of  age.  This  remarkable  man  was  silent, 
self-contained,  patient,  prudent,  and  subtle.  Cool  in  tem- 
perament, energetic  in  business,  slow  in  decision,  ready  in 


20  MODERN  EUROPE 

resource,  a  good  judge  of  mankind,  perfidious  on  occasion, 
refined  in  manners,  and  dignified  in  demeanor — he  was 
in  some  respects  well  adapted  to  his  lot  in  life,  great  rather 
in  his  circumstances  than  in  his  character,  a  man  with 
no  heroic  qualities,  who  never  felt  and  never  excited  en- 
thusiasm. His  career,  as  a  whole,  was  a  failure,  from  the 
lack  of  that  high  genius  which  could  alone  have  enabled 
him  to  deal  successfully  with  the  extreme  difficulties  of 
such  a  position  in  such  an  age.  The  chief  matters  to  be 
treated  in  an  outline  of  his  reign  are  the  rise  of  Protes- 
tantism, and  the  wars  carried  on  against  Charles  V  by 
France  and  other  States  in  order  to  maintain  the  balance 
of  power  in  Europe. 

The  Albigenses  and  John  Huss  in  Bohemia  were  the 
beginnings  of  revolt  from  the  spiritual  authority  O'f  the 
popes,  and  of  dissent  from  the  accepted  faith  of  the  west- 
ern branch  of  the  Catholic  Church.  The  Albigenses  had 
been  put  down  by  military  force  and  by  the  Inquisition, 
worked  by  the  zeal  of  St.  Dominic  and  his  friars.  The 
Council  of  Constance,  which  met  in  1415,  had  settled 
disputes  between  rival  popes,  and  dealt  with  the  innova- 
tions on  received  faith  and  practice  advocated  in  Bohemia 
by  John  Huss  and'  Jerome  of  Prague,  who  were  burned 
as  heretics.  At  the  beginning  of  the  Sixteenth  Century 
all  the  Nations  of  Western  Europe  were  in  communion 
with  the  Western  Church,  of  which  the  pope  was  the  re- 
cognized spiritual  head.  The  real  causes  of  the  great 
change  that  was  coming  lie  deep  down  in  the  springs  of 
human  thought  and  action,  excited  by  the  mental  stir  that 
had  been  long,  as  we  have  seen,  at  work  in  Europe. 

Early  in  the  Sixteenth  Century  complaints  began  to  be 
loud  against  alleged  practical  abuses  in  the  church,  against 
the  absolute  authority  claimed  by  her  in  matters  of  faith, 
and  against  the  undue  interference  of  popes  with  the  civil 


a 


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SPAIN  AND  THE  REFORMATION  21 

rights  of  governments  and  with  national  churches.  Such 
scholars  as  Reuchlin  and  Erasmus,  without  themselves 
taking  any  decisive  step,  undermined  the  position  of  the 
Roman  See  with  many  cultivated  persons  by  the  expres- 
sion of  free  thought  on  the  subject  of  religion.  The  mass 
of  the  people  was  influenced  by  the  diffusion  of  satirical 
epigrams,  allegories,  and  jokes  directed  against  the  church 
and  the  monks.  The  printing-press  was,  of  course,  the 
chief  material  aid  in  the  new  movement.  The  doctrines 
and  ceremonies  of  the  church  were  attacked  by  allegations 
that  many  of  them  were  unscriptural  arrd  against  the  prac- 
tice and  belief  of  primitive  Christianity.  Among  these 
topics  we  may  name  the  use  of  images  and  the  asking  the 
intercession  of  saints;  the  doctrine  of  purgatory;  the  en- 
forced celibacy  of  the  clergy ;  the  use  of  the  Latin  tongue 
in  the  services  of  the  church;  the  enforced  confession  of 
sins  to  a  priest;  and,  above  all,  the  doctrine  of  the  real 
bodily  presence  of  Christ  in  the  consecrated  elements  used 
at  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  supper. 

In  1508  Martin  Luther,  a  monk  of  Erfurt  (in  Prussian 
Saxony),  was  appointed  professor  of  philosophy  at  the 
University  of  Wittenberg,  lately  founded  by  Frederick  III, 
Elector  of  Saxony,  a  zealous  Catholic.  From  the  first  the 
new  professor  fearlessly  asserted  the  rights  of  human  rea- 
son, and,  being  made  a  Doctor  in  Theology  in  1512,  took 
up  the  cause  of  what  he  professed  to  find  in  the  Scriptures 
against  accepted  doctrines  O'f  the  church.  Leo  X  became 
pope  in  1513,  and  the  characters  of  the  two  men  were  such 
chat  a  collision  between  them  was  inevitable.  The  imme- 
diate occasion  of  Luther's  attack  on  the  church  was  a  quar- 
rel between  him  and  a  Dominican  monk  named  Tetzel 
concerning  the  sale  of  indulgences.  The  theory  as  to  in- 
dulgences in  the  Catholic  system  is  that  many  saints  and 
pious  men  have  done  more  good  works  and  suffered  more 


22  MODERN  EUROPE 

than  was  required  for  the  remission  of  their  sins;  the 
surplus  constitutes  a  treasure  for  the  church,  of  which 
the  pope  has  the  keys,  and  is  authorized  to  distribute  the 
same  in  exchange  for  pious  gifts.  Indulgences  began  in 
the  practice  of  commuting  penances  for  grievous  sins  into 
a  money  fine  payable  to  the  church.  In  the  minds  of  the 
ignorant  (who  did  not  know  that  the  grant  of  pardon  for 
sin  is  made  by  the  church  only  to  the  faithful  who  are 
truly  penitent  and  have  confessed)  an  indulgence  became 
equivalent  to  a  license  for  sin;  and  a  manifest  abuse  re- 
sulted which  all  good  Catholics  repudiated.  Tetzel  was 
engaged  in  the  sale  of  these  indulgences  in  Germany,  and 
traveled  through  Saxony  in  a  wagon  provided  with  two 
large  boxes,  one  containing  the  letters  oi  indulgence,  and 
the  other  destined  for  the  money  obtained  by  them.  The 
wrath  of  Luther  was  excited,  and  in  1517  he  attacked  the 
sale  of  indulgences  by  affixing  to  the  door  of  the  great 
church  at  Wittenberg  his  famous  Ninety-five  Theses  or 
questions,  amounting  to  a  challenge  to  a  public  disputation 
on  the  subject. 

A  fire  of  discussion,  attack,  recrimination,  and  abuse 
soon  spread  all  over  Western  and  Northern  Europe,  and 
the  Reformation  had  fairly  begun.  For,  after  attacking 
Tetzel,  Luther  went  on  to  assail  the  authority  of  the  pope 
and  the  doctrines  of  the  church  in  a  constant  succession  of 
pamphlets  and  sermons,  which  were  conveyed  by  means 
of  the  printing  press  into  everyone's  hands.  From  the 
Pyrenees  to  the  Vistula  all  Europe  was  eager  to  read  any- 
thing written  by  or  about  this  audacious  monk  that  was 
defying  Leo  X.  Luther  set  up  the  Bible,  interpreted  by 
man's  private  judgment,  against  the  authority  of  the 
church,  the  tradition  of  ages,  and  the  supremacy  of  the 
pope;  and  such  an  attitude  could  not  but  cause  a  struggle, 
as  for  life  or  death,  between  the  Catholic  Church  and  the 


SPAIN  AND  THE  REFORMATION  23 

followers  of  the  Wittenberg  reformer.  During  1518  and 
1519  Luther  continued  to  refuse  withdrawal  of  the  propo- 
sitions contained  in  his  theses,  and  to  decline  the  summons 
and  invitations  of  Leo  X  that  he  should  proceed  to  Rome. 
In  1520  the  Pope  excommunicated  Luther  and  his  support- 
ers, and  in  December  of  that  year  the  bold  German  eccle- 
siastic cut  off  all  retreat  for  himself  by  publicly  burning 
the  pope's  decree  before  the  gates  of  Wittenberg.  By  this 
act  Luther  separated  himself  decisively  and  finally  from 
the  Papal  See  and  the  Catholic  Church.  Several  of  the 
German  nobles  and  princes  embraced  the  new  cause,  and 
Frederick  of  Saxony  soon  came  over  to  the  side  of  what 
was  now  called  the  Reformation. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  the  supporters  of  Luther 
were  all  actuated  by  sincere  convictions  as  to  the  truth 
of  his  theological  views  and  the  justice  of  his  cause.  There 
were  many  who  had  been  longing  to  revolt  from  authority, 
but  wanted  a  leader  to  begin ;  there  were  many  who  con- 
sulted only  their  own  self-interest,  and  sought  release  from 
the  payment  of  tribute  to  the  Roman  See;  others,  more  sor- 
did still,  were  simply  eager  for  the  plunder  of  the  landed 
and  other  possessions  of  the  church  within  their  domin- 
ions. As  for  the  people,  the  German  Nations  in  particular 
had  long  regarded  the  dominion  of  the  papacy  with  feel- 
ings of  national  jealousy,  as  being  the  dominion  of  for- 
eigners, of  Italians,  of  men  who  were  aliens  in  language, 
manners,  and  modes  of -thought.  Under  the  banner  of 
Luther,  then,  came  "sovereigns  impatient  to  appropriate 
the  prerogatives  of  the  pope,  nobles  desirous  to  share  the 
plunder  of  abbeys,  patriots  impatient  of  a  foreign  rule, 
weak  men  allured  by  the  glitter  of  novelty,  bad  men  de- 
sirous of  the  license  inseparable  from  great  moral  revolu- 
tions"; as  well  as,  in  some  cases,  good  men  offended  by 
what  they  thought  to  be  the  corruptions  of  the  church,  and 


24  MODERN  EUROPE 

learned  men  eager  in  the  pursuit  of  what  they  believed  to 
be  the  truth. 

Leo  X,  after  Luther's  open  defiance,  called  to  his  aid 
the  newly-chosen  emperor,  Charles  V,  who  summoned 
Luther  in  1521  to  appear  before  the  Diet  (or  Assembly) 
of  the  German  princes  at  Worms,  a  free  imperial  city  on 
the  Upper  Rhine.  The  Reformer  there  (in  April)  at- 
tended before  a  great  concourse  of  princes,  presided  over 
by  the  Emperor,  acknowledged  his  writings,  and  refused 
to  withdraw  them.  An  edict  was  thereupon  issued  against 
the  new  doctrines.  In  December,  1521,  the  pope  died  sud- 
denly, and  was  succeeded  by  the  mild  Adrian  VI.  Luther 
now  began  to  translate  and  issue  his  German  Bible  (com- 
pleted in  1534),  the  circulation  of  which  greatly  aided  his 
work.  None  of  the  measures  taken  by  the  Catholics  was 
able  to  prevent  the  spread  of  the  movement,  nor  its  success 
in  many  quarters.  Austria,  France,  and  some  of  the  Ger- 
man sovereign-princes  strove  to  suppress  it  by  persecution. 
Meanwhile  Luther  assailed  the  principles  of  monasticism 
in  his  own  person  and  conduct  by  throwing  off  his  char- 
acter as  monk  in  1524,  and  marrying  a  nun  named  Catha- 
rine von  Bora  in  1525.  The  monasteries  in  Germany  were 
soon  in  many  cases  deserted,  and  the  priests  in  Saxony 
and  Switzerland  took  wives.  In  1525  the  Elector  of  Sax- 
ony; Philip,  Count  of  Hesse,  and  Albert  of  Brandenburg 
(Duke  of  Prussia)  publicly  declared  themselves  Luther- 
ans, and  many  German  cities  and  States  or  portions  of 
States  embraced  the  new  doctrines.  A  Diet  O'f  the  Empire, 
held  at  Spires  (Speyer)  in  1529,  issued  a  decree  against 
changes  in  doctrine,  and  the  protest  of  the  Lutherans 
against  this  decree  caused  the  professors  of  the  new  faith 
to  be  known  afterwards  as  Protestants.  In  Switzerland 
the  work  of  the  new  movement  was  carried  on  chiefly  by 
Ulrich  Zwingli  (known  as  Zuinglius)  and  CEcolampa- 


SPAIN  AND  THE  REFORMATION  25 

dius,  and  led  to  a  civil  war  between  the  Protestant  and 
Catholic  cantons,  in  which  (1531)  Zuinglius  was  killed. 
He  was  succeeded  by  the  famous  Frenchman  John  Calvin, 
a  man  of  great  learning  and  acuteness,  who  lived  and 
worked  till  1564,  establishing  at  Geneva  the  body  of  fol- 
lowers who  called  themselves  Calvinites.  Melanchthon 
aided  Luther  in  Germany,  and  drew  up  the  famous  state- 
ment of  Lutheran  doctrines  which  was  presented  to  the 
Emperor  Charles  V  at  the  Diet  of  Augsburg  in  1530,  and 
is  known  as  the  Augsburg  Confession. 

During  the  fifty  years  which  followed  the  separation 
of  Luther  (in  1520)  from  the  communion  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  Protestantism  reached  its  height.  In  England, 
Scotland,  Denmark,  Sweden,  Norway,  North  Germany, 
Saxony,  Hesse,  Wiirtemburg,  the  Palatinate,  the  North- 
ern Netherlands  (now  Holland),  and  in  several  Swiss 
cantons,  the  Reformation  had  completely  triumphed. 
Ireland,  Spain,  Portugal,  and  Italy  remained  in  the  Cath- 
olic communion;  so  did  much  of  Southern  and  Central 
Germany.  In  France  the  contest  was  for  a  time  unde- 
cided; the  Protestants  there  acquired  the  name  of  Hugue- 
nots, a  term  of  uncertain  origin,  first  applied  to  them 
by  the  Catholics  in  contempt;  and  France  in  the  end 
remained  almost  wholly  Catholic.  Speaking  broadly,  the 
Teutonic  Nations  accepted,  the  Romance  and  the  Slavonic 
peoples  rejected,  the  reformed  faith  of  which  Luther  was 
the  most  energetic  and  violent  champion.  Before  relating 
what  the  Catholic  Church  effected  on  her  side  in  the  way 
of  reformation  and  reaction,  we  shall  give  a  brief  account 
of  the  wars  of  Charles  V,  occasioned  by  the  jealous  rivalry 
and  fears  of  France  and  other  States,  and  of  the  civil  wars 
in  France,  partly  arising  out  o>f  the  Reformation. 

Francis  I  of  France  (reigned  1515-1547)  was  enraged 
against  Charles  V  on  his  election  as  Emperor  of  Ger- 


26  MODERN  EUROPE 

many.  They  intrigued  against  each  other  for  the  alliance 
of  England  (under  Henry  VIII),  which  ultimately  joined 
the  Emperor,  and  in  1521  war  broke  out,  waged  in  the 
north  of  France,  on  the  Spanish  border,  and  in  the  north 
of  Italy.  Francis,  through  his  own  unjust  behavior,  lost 
the  services  of  his  great  General,  the  Constable  de  Bour- 
bon, wrho  went  over  to  the  side  of  Charles.  He  drove  his 
countrymen  over  the  Alps,  took  Toulon,  and  besieged 
Marseilles.  Francis  succeeded  in  rescuing  Provence,  and 
advanced  into  the  Milanese  in  1524.  In  February,  1525, 
he  was  utterly  defeated  by  the  Emperor's  forces  at  Pavia, 
made  prisoner,  and  sent  to  Madrid.  It  may  be  stated  that 
there  is  no  word  of  truth  in  the  story  about  Francis  I's 
letter  to  his  mother,  with  the  famous  words,  "All  is  lost, 
save  only  honor."  In  1526  he  obtained  his  release  by  sign- 
ing a  treaty  for  the  surrender  of  territory  in  Italy  and 
Flanders,  which  he  afterward  declined  to  give  up,  and  the 
war  went  merrily  on  from  1527  to  1529.  An  alliance 
called  the  "Holy  League"  was  formed  against  Charles  V 
by  Pope  Clement  VII,  Francis  I,  Henry  VIII,  Venice, 
Milan,  and  other  minor  States  O'f  Italy.  In  1527  Rome 
was  taken  and  sacked  by  the  Emperor's  troops  under  the 
Constable  de  Bourbon,  who  was  killed  in  the  assault. 
Fighting  was  ended  for  the  time  by  the  Peace  of  Cam- 
brai,  in  Flanders,  in  1529,  which  left  Charles  V  master 
of  Italy,  and  by  far  the  most  powerful  monarch  in  Europe. 
Francis  I  did  much  for  France  in  encouraging  litera- 
ture, science,  and  art,  but  his  restless  spirit  urged  him 
again  to  war  with  Charles  V  in  1535,  renewed,  after  a 
truce,  in  1541,  and  ended  in  1545,  after  a  struggle,  which 
left  Francis  secure  in  his  French  possessions  only  because 
Protestantism  in  Germany  called  the  Emperor  to  other 
work.  The  policy  of  Charles  was  to  reconcile,  if  he  could, 
the  Protestants  and  the  Catholics,  and  with  this  view  he 


SPAIN  AND  THE  REFORMATION  27 

alternately  threatened  and  courted  the  former.  Luther 
died  early  in  1546,  and  war  began  between  the  Emperor 
and  the  league  of  Protestant  Princes  in  Germany,  which 
ended  in  the  defeat  of  the  Protestants  and  the  breaking 
up  of  their  confederacy.  An  alliance,  however,  made  in 
1552  between  Henry  II  of  France  and  Maurice,  Elector 
of  Saxony,  restored  the  Protestant  cause,  and  in  1555, 
after  the  Emperor  had  sustained  several  defeats,  the  Diet 
of  Augsburg  confirmed  the  Treaty  of  Passau  (1552),  giv- 
ing the  Protestants  equal  rights  with  the  Catholics  in  Ger- 
many. Within  the  different  German  States,  however, 
great  intolerance  was  exhibited  on  all  sides  between  Cath- 
olics and  Protestants,  and  the  Protestant  sects  of  Luther- 
ans and  Calvinists,  who  all  persecuted  each  other  as  far 
as  they  could.  All  this  prepared  the  way  for  a  desperate 
struggle  in  the  Seventeenth  Century. 

In  1555  and  1556  Charles  V  resigned  to  his  son,  the 
famous  or  infamous,  Philip  II  of  Spain  (who  is  the  subject 
of  an  article  in  the  volume,  "Great  Warriors"),  the  sov- 
ereignty of  the  Netherlands  and  the  throne  of  Spain,  with 
all  its  belongings,  and  the  dignity  and  rule  of  the  Empire 
of  Germany  passed  to  his  brother  Ferdinand.  Charles  V 
died  in  1558  in  retirement  at  the  convent  of  St.  Justus 
(San  Yuste)  in  Spain.  Henry  II  of  France  (reigned 
1547-1559)  was  the  son  of  Francis  I,  and  took  up  his 
father's  old  quarrel  with  the  Empire,  Spain,  and  Eng- 
land. In  1552  he  seized  the  three  German  bishoprics  of 
Metz,  Toul,  and  Verdun  (names  made  familiar  in  the 
Franco-German  war  of  1870);  in  1558  his  General,  the 
Duke  of  Guise,  retook  Calais  from  the  English;  in  1557 
the  Spanish  army  of  Philip  II,  with  a  contingent  of  Eng- 
lish troops  furnished  by  his  wife,  Mary  I,  had  defeated 
the  French  completely  at  the  great  battle  of  St.  Quentin 
(in  North  of  France),  and  checked  the  rising  power  of 


38  MODERN  EUROPE 

France.  The  war  was  ended  by  the  Treaty  of  Cateau- 
Cambresis  (in  the  North  of  France)  in  1559.  The  wife 
of  Henry  II  of  France  was  the  famous  Catharine  de' 
Medici,*  an  Italian  princess  of  the  celebrated  Florentine 
house — a  woman  beautiful,  able,  ambitious,  and  wicked. 
For  four  reigns  (those  of  her  husband  and  three  sons  who 
reigned  in  succession)  she  practiced  the  arts  of  Italian 
intrigue  with  great  assiduity,  and  often  with  fatal  success, 
until  her  death  in  1589. 

The  history  of  France  during  the  latter  half  of  the 
Sixteenth  Century  is  mainly  taken  up  with  a  series  of 
civil  wars,  arising  out  of  religious  differences  between  the 
Catholics  and  the  Protestants  within  the  country.  Henry 
II  of  France  was  accidentally  killed  at  a  tournament  in 
1559,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  a  lad  of  sixteen,  as 
Francis  II,  married  to  Mary  Queen  of  Scots.  The 
Government  was,  during  his  reign  of  eighteen  months,  in 
the  hands  of  the  Duke  of  Guise  and  his  brother  Charles, 
Cardinal  of  Lorraine — the  former  directing  military 
affairs,  the  latter  being  at  the  head  of  religious  matters  and 
of  the  finances.  They  both  used  their  power  solely  as  a 
means  of  gratifying  their  pride  and  avarice.  The  Protes- 
tants of  France,  called  Huguenots,  as  we  have  seen,  had 
adopted  that  form  of  the  new  faith  which  was  called  Cal- 
vinism, after  its  founder,  Calvin,  who  had  gone  further 
away  even  than  Luther  from  the  Catholic  doctrines.  The 
French  Protestants,  who  were  then  very  numerous,  had 
been  persecuted  by  Francis  I,  and  then  by  Henry  II,  and 
the  party  of  the  Guises  continued  this  policy  under  Francis 
II.  Anthony  of  Bourbon,  King  of  Navarre,  and  his 
brother  Louis,  Prince  de  Conde,  were  jealous  of  the  power 
wielded  by  the  Guises,  who  were  not  of  the  royal  line,  and 
united  with  the  Calvinists  to  overthrow  them  as  the  lead- 

*See  Volume   "Famous  Women  of  the  World." 


SPAIN  AND  THE  REFORMATION  29 

ers  of  the  dominant  Catholic  party.  We  see  that  the  cause 
of  the  quarrel  was  ambition,  while  religion  was  the  pre- 
text. A  conspiracy  was  formed  against  the  government 
among  the  French  nobility,  especially  those  of  the  Cal- 
vinist  sect,  and  civil  war  soon  broke  out.  Francis  II  died 
in  December,  1560,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  brother, 
Charles  IX,  then  but  nine  years  old. 

Charles  IX  reigned  in  name  from  1560  to  1574.  The 
real  power  was  in  the  hands  of  the  unscrupulous  Queen- 
mother,  Catharine  de'  Medici,  and  her  supporters,  the 
Guises.  Against  them  were  ranged  Anthony  of  Bourbon 
and  the  Prince  de  Conde,  who  became  a  Huguenot,  with 
the  famous  Admiral  Coligny,  a  leading  Calvinist.  The 
Prince  de  Conde  was  an  active,  enterprising,  and  ambi- 
tious man ;  Coligny  was  prudent,  cautious,  and  well  fitted 
to  be  a  leader,  skilled  in  repairing  his  frequent  defeats, 
and  as  virtuous  a  man  as  that  age  could  anywhere  show. 
The  Duke  of  Guise  was  a  soldier  distinguished  in  the 
Italian  wars,  and  noted  for  his  recapture  of  Calais  (1558) 
from  the  English.  He  was  a  zealous  Catholic.  His  chief 
supporter  in  the  battlefield  was  De  Montmorency,  Con- 
stable of  France,  who  had  fought  with  distinction  in  Italy 
for  Francis  I,  though  he  was  also  the  defeated  commander 
at  the  great  battle  of  St.  Quentin  in  1557. 

The  war  broke  out  in  1562,  through  an  affray  in 
Champagne  between  the  followers  of  Guise  and  a  party 
of  Calvinists  at  their  worship  in  a  barn.  At  the  battle  of 
Dreux  December  19,  1562,  Coligny  and  Conde  were 
defeated  by  Guise,  and  Conde  was  taken  prisoner  on  one 
side  and  Montmorency  on  the  other.  Early  in  1563  Guise 
was  killed  near  Orleans,  and  there  was  a  lull  in  the  fratri- 
cidal contest  for  a  season.  In  1 567  Montmorency  defeated 
the  Huguenots  under  Conde  and  Coligny  in  a  battle  at  St. 
Denis,  near  Paris,  but  died  of  wounds  received  in  the 


30  MODERN  EUROPE 

fight.  The  Duke  of  Guise  had  been  succeeded  in  the  lead- 
ership of  the  Catholic  party  by  his  son,  Henry  of  Guise, 
a  brave  soldier  and  determined  man.  In  1569  the  Calvin- 
ists  were  thoroughly  defeated  at  Jarnac,  where  Conde 
was  killed;  and  again,  under  Coligny,  at  Moncontour. 
Peace  was  made  for  a  time  in  1570. 

The  most  famous  of  the  champions  of  the  Huguenot 
cause  in  France  had  already  come  to  the  front.  This  was 
the  gallant  Henry,  King  of  Navarre,  son  of  the  above- 
named  Anthony  of  Bourbon  and  of  Jeanne  d'Albret, 
Queen  of  Navarre.  He  is  often  called  the  Bearnais, 
because  he  was  born  (1553)  at  Pau  in  the  province  of 
Beam,  on  the  French  side  of  the  Pyrenees.  He  was 
brought  up  as  a  Calvinist,  and,  at  the  age  of  sixteen, 
fought  at  Jarnac  and  Moncontour.  He  was  one  of  the 
bravest,  frankest,  and  most  lovable  men  that  ever  lived; 
his  white  plume  waved  ever  in  the  thickest  of  the  fight; 
his  winning  demeanor,  the  outward  presentment  of  a  soul 
in  many  ways  noble  and  chivalrous,  gave  him  an  entrance 
to  all  hearts.  In  1572  he  married  the  beautiful  Margaret 
of  Valois,  the  King's  sister,  the  nuptials  being  celebrated 
at  Paris  a  few  days  before  the  fearful  event  known  as  the 
Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew  (August,  1572).  The 
slaughter  of  the  Huguenots  in  Paris  and  the  provinces  on 
this  occasion  introduces  one  of  the  vexed  questions  of  his- 
tory, into  the  discussion  of  which  we  cannot  enter  here. 
Admiral  Coligny  was  killed  in  Paris,  and  Henry  of 
Navarre  saved  his  life  by  professing  the  Catholic  faith. 
The  Huguenots  renewed  the  war  for  a  time,  and  another 
year's  useless  bloodshed  occurred. 

Charles  IX  died  in  1574,  and  was  succeeded  by  his 
brother,  third  son  of  Catharine  de'  Medici,  as  Henry  III. 
In  1576  the  new  King,  a  selfish  voluptuary,  whose  pleas- 
ures civil  discord  interrupted,  issued  an  edict  favorable 


31 

to  the  Calvinists,  and  this  caused  the  formation  of  the 
famous  Catholic  League  in  December,  15/6.  From  time 
to  time  the  civil  war  was  renewed,  and  France  was  in  a 
dreadful  state  of  confusion  and  anarchy.  In  1584,  by 
the  death  of  the  King's  brother,  Henry  of  Navarre,  who 
had  again  become  Calvinistic  in  professed  faith,  became 
heir-apparent  to  the  throne.  The  league  resumed  its  activ- 
ity under  Henry  of  Guise;  and  when  it  forced  the  King 
to  withdraw',  in  1585,  the  concessions  made  to  the  Protes- 
tants, fighting  began  again.  In  1 588  Guise  drove  his  sov- 
ereign from  the  capital,  Paris;  and  in  December  of  that 
year  Henry  III,  after  luring  his  enemy  thither  by  a  pre- 
tended reconciliation,  had  Guise  murdered  at  the  royal 
castle  of  Blois. '  Paris  and  several  great  towns  then 
revolted,  and  Henry  III  made  an  alliance  with  Henry  of 
Navarre  and  besieged  Paris,  which  was  defended  by  the 
Duke  of  Mayenne,  brother  of  Henry  of  Guise,  and  now 
head  of  the  league.  The  Catholic  party  now  hated  the 
King;  and  in  August,  1589,  a  Dominican  monk,  Jacques 
Clement,  gave  him  a  fatal  stab  in  his  camp  before  Paris  at 
St.  Cloud.  In  Henry  III  the  House  of  Valois  in  France 
became  extinct. 

In  1589,  in  the  person  of  Henry  of  Navarre,  son  of 
Anthony  of  Bourbon,  the  House  of  Bourbon  came  to  the 
throne  of  France,  and  ruled  there,  save  during  the  revolu- 
tion and  first  Empire,  until  1830.  The  new  King,  Henry 
IV  (Henri  Quatre),  had  to  fight  for  his  throne,  the  Cath- 
olic League,  headed,  as  above,  by  the  Due  de  Mayenne, 
rejecting  him  as  a  heretic.  In  September,  1589,  Kenry 
gained  a  great  victory  over  the  Catholic  party  at  Arques, 
near  Dieppe;  in  March,  1590,  he  won  his  brilliant  battle  of 
Ivry,  west  of  Paris;  in  1593  he  professed  the  Catholic 
faith,  and  in  1594  entered  Paris  in  triumph.  Between 
1595  and  1598  he  was  engaged  in  reducing  the  provinces 


32  MODERN  EUROPE 

of  Burgundy,  Picardy,  and  Brittany,  held  against  him  by 
Spanish  troops,  sent  by  Philip  II,  who  claimed  the  French 
throne.  Henry  IV  was  now,  as  accepted  King  of  France, 
to  show  the  best  side  of  his  character,  the  paternal  regard 
for  his  people's  interests  which  has  made  his  memory  dear 
to  the  French  Nation.  It  was  his  business  to  restore  last- 
ing peace  and  solid  prosperity  to  a  country  where  the  royal 
authority  had  greatly  decayed,  and  which  had  long  been 
suffering  under  the  worst  passions  engendered  in  civil 
war.  His  first  object  was  to  reconcile,  if  possible,  the 
contending  religious  parties.  In  1598  Henry  IV  issued 
the  celebrated  Edict  of  Nantes,  which  defined  the  rights  of 
the  Protestants  in  France.  By  this  document  the  free 
exercise  of  their  religion  was  granted  to  the  Huguenots, 
and  all  employments  and  political  offices  were  thrown 
open  to  them.  A  struggle  was  thus  ended  for  a  time 
which  had  threatened  to  ruin  both  the  monarchy  and  the 
country.  We  must  remember  that  the  Catholic  faith  was 
the  religion  of  the  great  majority  of  the  French  people; 
and  the  Protestants,  under  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  were 
required  to  pay  tithes  to  the  State  religion,  and  to  observe 
the  Catholic  festivals  and  holidays. 

To  the  wise  administration  of  affairs  by  the  famous 
Duke  of  Sully  was  due  in  large  measure  the  rapid  recov- 
ery of  France,  under  Henry  IV,  from  the  effects  of  the 
disastrous  civil  wars.  The  Due  de  Sully,  Marshal  of 
France,  was  a  Calvinist  who  had  in  his  youth,  as  the  Baron 
de  Rosny,  from  his  birthplace  near  Mantes,  escaped  in 
Paris  from  the  Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew.  He  fought 
for  Henry  IV  and  was  severely  wounded  at  the  battle  of 
Ivry  (1590);  his  devotion  to  his  country  was  shown  by 
the  advice  which  he,  though  he  was  a  Protestant,  gave  to 
Henry,  that  the  King  should  embrace  the  Catholic  faith. 
In  1597  Sully  became  Minister  of  Finance,  and  afterward 


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SPAIN  AND  THE  REFORMATION  33 

received  charge  of  all  fortifications,  public  buildings,  ports, 
canals,  roads,  and  river  navigation.  These  great  oppor- 
tunities were  nobly  used  in  behalf  of  his  country  and  his 
King.  Sully  had  to  deal  with  a  great  public  debt,  and 
with  a  system  of  revenue  collection  so  defective  and 
fraudulent  that  but  a  seventh  part,  it  is  stated,  of  the  taxes 
paid  by  the  people  actually  reached  the  public  exchequer. 
The  reforms  of  the  minister  soon  cleared  off  a  large  part 
of  the  debt,  diminished  taxation,  created  a  large  reserve 
fund,  and  doubled  the  amount  o-f  revenue  received  by  the 
exchequer;  four-fifths  of  the  taxes  paid  by  the  people  now 
reached  the  treasury.  The  energy  of  Sully  was  indefati- 
gable, and  he  showed  the  highest  principle  and  the  most 
disinterested  courage  in  resisting  the  demands  of  greedy 
courtiers,  and  setting  the  welfare  of  France  above  all 
private  considerations.  Public  virtue  of  this  kind  was 
rare,  indeed,  in  that  age),  and  an  enduring  fame  has 
rewarded  his  exertions  and  integrity.  Sully  also  greatly 
encouraged  agriculture,  which  he  justly  regarded  as  the 
chief  source  of  the  French  people's  prosperity,  and  did 
much  to  benefit  commerce.  In  pursuit  of  these  objects 
marshes  were  drained,  mulberry  trees  were  planted,  for- 
ests preserved;  great  highways  were  opened  in  all  direc- 
tions, canals  dug,  free  trade  in  grain  introduced,  and 
commercial  treaties  made  with  Holland,  England,  Turkey, 
and  Spain. 

Henry  IV  soon  became  the  most  popular  of  sovereigns, 
and  his  popularity  aided  his  determined  efforts  to 
strengthen  the  authority  of  the  crown.  The  great  nobles 
had  become  almost  independent  under  the  weak  rule  of 
the  last  Kings  of  the  House  of  Valois,  and  Henry  took 
severe  measures  in  order  to  restore  the  royal  power.  The 
municipal  franchises  of  towns  were  also  annulled ;  a  strict 

censorship  of  the  press  was  established;  and  such  power 
v  01,.  2     3 


34  MODERN  EUROPE 

as  the  Parliament  still  retained  was  diminished.  In  his 
foreign  policy  Henry  IV  did  all  that  he  could  to  thwart 
the  imperial  house  of  Austria  and  the  great  Catholic 
power,  Spain.  In  1609  he  made  preparations  for  a  war 
which,  according  to  Sully's  Memoirs,  aimed  at  great 
designs  for  the  rearrangement  of  affairs  in  Europe;  but 
the  following  year  (1610)  he  died  by  one  of  the  most 
tragic,  pitiful,  and  deplorable  of  assassinations.  A  fanatic 
named  Ravaillac  stabbed  him  to  the  heart  as  he  sat  in  his 
coach  in  a  street  of  Paris.  The  deed  was  probably  that 
of  a  lunatic  brought  to  that  condition  by  misery  combined 
with  religious  excitement.  Henry  IV  left,  besides  other 
children,  a  son  who  succeeded  him  as  Louis  XIII.  The 
mother  of  these  was  his  second  wife,  Maria  de'  Medici, 
related  to  the  reigning  house  of  Tuscany,  which  had  suc- 
ceeded the  great  Florentine  Republic  in  1569. 

On  the  outbreak  of  revolt  from  the  Church,  which  is 
known  as  the  Reformation,  the  danger  to  the  Catholic 
system  was  formidable,  but  it  was  encountered  with  the 
ability  and  energy  which  have  been  often  displayed  by 
Catholicism  at  the  crises  of  its  history.  In  Italy  there 
was  a  great  unwillingness,  both  in  the  religious  and  the 
irreligious,  to  break  with  the  Catholic  Church;  in  Spain 
there  was  the  strongest  adherence  to  the  ancient  faith,  and 
the  most  zealous  resolve  to  maintain  it  at  all  points  and 
at  all  hazards.  The  measures  which  were  adopted  by  the 
rulers  o<f  the  church,  and  mainly  contributed  to  sustain 
Catholicism  under  the  shock  of  the  Reformation,  were 
three — internal  reform,  the  recognition  and  development 
of  the  order  of  the  Jesuits,  and  the  working  of  the  machin- 
ery of  the  Inquisition.  A  reformation  of  manners  and 
discipline  in  the  south  of  Europe  followed  the  Reforma- 
tion, as  the  Protestants  considered  it,  of  doctrine  in  the 
North.  A  revived  zeal  was  displayed  throughout  the 


SPAIN  AND  THE  REFORMATION  35 

Catholic  world.  Old  institutions  and  religious  communi- 
ties were  remodeled  and  made  efficient,  and  new  methods 
were  called  into  action.  The  monastic  orders  restored  old 
strictness  of  discipline,  and  devoted  themselves  anew  to 
the  relief  and  instruction  o<f  the  poor.  A  new  order  of 
priests,  called  that  of  the  Theatines,  from  one  of  its  found- 
ers, Caraffa,  Bishop  of  Chieti,  anciently  Theate,  in  Italy, 
was  instituted  in  1524.  These  monks  were  bound  by  their 
vows  to  preach  against  heretics,  to  help  the  parochial 
clergy  in  their  spiritual  work,  to  attend  the  sick  and  crim- 
inals, and  to  trust  entirely  to  Providence  for  their  daily 
bread,  owning  no  property,  collecting  no  alms,  and  await- 
ing the  voluntary  gifts  of  the  charitable.  Their  chief 
founder,  Caraffa,  afterward  Pope  Paul  IV,  was  conspicu- 
ous among  them  for  zeal  and  devotion,  and  his  example 
was  well  followed  in  the  order.  The  court  of  Rome  itself 
was  purified  from  much  that  could  not  fail  to  give  a  handle 
for  the  attacks  of  Protestants.  The  luxurious  ease  and 
literary  and  artistic  dilettantism  of  Pope  Leo  X  (1513- 
1522)  were  succeeded  by  the  austerity  and  fervor  of  Paul 
!V  (1555-1559),  Pius  V  (1566-1572),  and  Gregory 
XIII  (1572-1585). 

The  Luther  of  the  great  Catholic  reaction  was  Ignatius 
Loyola,  the  enthusiastic  founder  of  the  Order  of  the 
Jesuits,  or  Society  of  Jesus,  in  1539 — an  institution  which 
the  shrewd- policy  and  energy  of  his  successors  made  into 
the  most  famous  and  powerful  organization  of  that  class 
which  the  world  has  ever  seen.  Loyola  was  a  Spanish 
gentleman  of  a  noble  family  in  Biscay,  and  from  an  early 
age  showed  a  zealous  temperament,  fostered  by  reading 
the  Spanish  romances,  and  blending  religion  and  chivalry 
in  a  high  degree.  After  a  career  of  distinction  as  a  soldier 
he  was  disabled  by  a  wound,  and  became  crippled  for  life 
in  1521.  On  a  bed  of  sickness  he  turned  to  dreams  of  spir- 


36  MODERN  EUROPE 

itual  conquest,  and  it  is  said  that  visions  and  revelations 
were  made  to  him.  When  he  recovered,  Loyola  made  pil- 
grimages to  Rome  and  Jerusalem,  studied  at  the  Spanish 
universities,  and  then  settled  at  Paris  for  a  seven  years' 
course  of  theological  training  at  the  university,  from  1528 
t°  I535-  He  there  formed  the  nucleus  of  his  famous 
society,  consisting  of  himself  and  his  friends  Le  Fevre, 
Fran9ois  Xavier,  Lainez,  Bobadilla,  and  others.  They 
bound  themselves  together  by  vows  of  chastity  and  pov- 
erty, devoting  themselves  to  the  care  of  the  church  and 
the  conversion  of  infidels.  In  1543  his  new  order — the 
Company  or  Society  of  Jesus — was  recognized  by  the 
authorities  at  Rome.  The  vow  of  obedience  taken  by  the 
Jesuits  bound  them  to  perform  without  any  demur  all  the 
commands  of  the  Pope.  They  discarded  the  peculiar  garb 
of  monastic  orders,  and  devoted  themselves  to  the  educa- 
tion of  youth,  the  defense  of  the  Church,  and  the  propa- 
gation of  the  faith.  Besides  missionary  enterprises '  for 
the  extension  of  the  Church,  the  chief  methods  of  influence 
used  by  the  Jesuits  were  the  pulpit,  the  confessional,  and 
their  schools  and  colleges  for  training  the  young.  In  1541 
Loyola  was  elected  General  of  the  order,  and  continued  to 
reside  in  Rome  and  to  govern  the  society  until  his  death 
in  1556.  The  Popes  soon  saw  the  use  which  could  be 
made  of  the  Jesuits  against  the  advancing  Reformation, 
and  granted  to  them  extraordinary  privileges  and  powers, 
enabling  them  to  make  the  Catholic  religion  acceptable 
to  men  and  women  of  every  class,  condition,  and  char- 
acter. The  General  had  unlimited  power  over  the  mem- 
bers of  the  order,  and  could  send  them  on  missions  o>f  every 
kind,  confer  academical  degrees  on  them,  appoint  them  to 
theological  professorships,  and  in  all  ways  further  the 
objects  of  the  society.  The  basis  of  the  constitution  was 
a  general  dispersion  of  the  members  throughout  society, 


SPAIN  AND  THE  REFORMATION  37 

combined  with  entire  union  amongst  themselves,  and  sub- 
ordination to  the  General  and  his  Council  at  Rome. 

The  Jesuits  soon  acquired  unbounded  influence  in  all 
parts  of  the  Catholic  world,  and  made  rapid  way  in  the 
countries  still  divided  between  the  old  faith  and  the  new. 
As  rectors  and  professors  in  colleges,  as  preachers  in  cities 
and  at  courts,  as  tutors  and  spiritual  guides  in  families, 
as  missionaries  among  heathens  and  heretics,  as  governors 
of  colonies  in  remote  parts  of  the  world,  as  father  confes- 
sors of  princes,  and  as  general  pervaders  of  every  class 
of  society,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  they  were  con- 
stantly engaged  in  advancing  the  interests  of  the  Catholic 
Church.  Such  were  the  energy,  skill,  discipline,  courage, 
self-denial,  devotion,  and  versatility  of  the  members  of 
the  new  society  that  it  has  been  well  said  that  "the  history 
of  the  Order  of  Jesus  is  the  history  of  the  great  Catholic 
reaction."  Every  quarter  of  the  globe  witnessed  the  zeal 
of  Jesuit  missionaries;  every  court  was  the  scene  of  Jesuit 
intrigues;  all  art,  science,  literature,  luxury,  and  fashion 
were  pressed  by  Jesuits  into  the  service  of  religion  and 
the  advancement  of  the  cause  of  the  Catholic  Church.  The 
Jesuits  were  soon  established  as  a  recognized  and  pow- 
erful order  in  Italy,  Portugal,  Spain,  and  Catholic  Ger- 
many, especially  in  Austria  and  Bavaria.  They  had  great 
success  in  making  themselves  acceptable  to  persons  of  all 
classes  by  adapting  their  own  demeanor  and  the  require- 
ments of  the  Church  to  the  characters  of  each  and  the 
occasion  of  the  moment,  this  spirit  of  worldly  policy  and 
accommodation  to  circumstances  being  derived  chiefly 
from  the  principles  of  Lainez,  the  second  General  of  the 
order.  Their  improvements,  zeal,  and  skill  in  education 
of  the  higher  class  gave  them  a  just  and  wide-spread  fame, 
and  scholars  trained  in  their  institutions  did  much  for  the 
study  of  history,  geography,  language,  rhetoric,  and 


38  MODERN  EUROPE 

mathematics.  The  Jesuits  obtained  a  foothold  in  France 
with  some  difficulty,  and  were  never  so-  influential  there 
as  in  some  other  countries.  It  is  certain  that  the  Jesuits, 
more  than  any  other  influence,  caused  the  great  reflux  in 
public  opinion  which  followed  the  Reformation,  and  which 
is  styled  the  Catholic  reaction.  To  the  Jesuits  it  is  mainly 
due  that  whereas,  half  a  century  after  the  Reformation, 
the  contest  was  still  undecided  between  Catholicism  and 
Protestantism  in  France,  Belgium,  Southern  Germany, 
Hungary,  and  Poland — in  half  a  century  more  the  Cath- 
olic Church  was  victorious  and  dominant  in  all  those  coun- 
tries. Nor  must  it  be  forgotten  that  the  Protestants  had 
shown  a  lessened  zeal-and  an  inferior  policy,  and  that  while 
the  whole  efforts  of  the  Catholics  were  directed  against  the 
.Protestants,  almost  the  whole  energy  of  the  Protestants 
was  directed  against  each  other.  In  Germany  the  Cal- 
vinists  and  the  Lutherans  were  too  often  engaged  in  per- 
secuting each  other,  and  in  England  and  Scotland  men 
were  wasting,  in  hot  disputes  on  points  of  discipline  and 
doctrine,  the  powers  and  time  which  might  have  brought 
over  Ireland  from  the  old  faith  to  the  new. 

The  rise  of  the  Inquisition  began  as  a  means  of  coping 
with  the  outbreak  of  heresy  in  the  south  of  France  among 
the  Albigenses,  at  the  end  of  the  Twelfth  and  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Thirteenth  Century.  Innocent  III,  who 
became  Pope  in  1 198,  and  his  successors  used  the  tribunal, 
known  as  the  Holy  Inquisition  or  the  Holy  Office,  both  to 
extirpate  rebellious  members  of  the  Church  and  to  extend 
the  papal  power  at  the  expense  of  the  bishops.  The  work 
of  the  officials  of  the  Inquisition  was  to  seek  out  adherents 
of  false  doctrines,  and  to  pronounce  sentence,  without 
appeal,  against  their  fortune  and  their  life.  Suspected  per- 
sons were  secretly  seized  and  imprisoned,  and  the  Domini- 
can and  Franciscan  monks,  the  chief  agents  of  the  tribunal, 


SPAIN  AND  THE  REFORMATION  39 

kept  a  strict  watch  also  over  the  conduct  of  the  bishops. 
The  Inquisition  was  introduced  into  Italy,  and  into  parts 
of  France,  but  with  less  authority  than  in  Italy.  In  Eng- 
land it  was  never  established  at  all.  In  the  middle  of  the 
Thirteenth  Century  the  Holy  Office  made  its  way  into 
Spain,  and  toward  the  end  of  the  Fifteenth  Century  the 
Spanish  Inquisition  became  the  most  remarkable  and  pow- 
erful development  of  the  institution  that  ever  existed. 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella  used  it  politically  against  the  pow- 
erful nobles,  as  well  as  religiously  in  persecuting  heretics. 
In  1478  the  famous  Torquemadaj  prior  of  'a  Dominican 
convent,  was  appointed  the  first  Grand  Inquisitor  of 
Spain.  He  had  200  confidential  agents,  known  as  famil- 
iars, and  a  body  guard  for  his  defense.  The  ceremony 
of  burning  heretics  was  called  an  auto  de  fc,  or  act  of 
faith.  In  1483  the  Pope  (Sixtus  IV)  ratified  the  authority 
of  the  Holy  Office  in  Spain,  and  the  tribunal  became  a 
most  powerful  instrument  in  the  hands  of  the  Spanish 
sovereign,  who  appointed  the  grand  inquisitor  and  his 
chief  colleagues,  for  establishing  the  royal  power  on  the 
ruins  of  the  national  freedom,  for  coercing  the  clergy,  and 
restraining  the  nobles.  The  royal  treasury  was  enriched 
by  estates  confiscated  through  the  agency  of  the  Holy 
Office,  and  Torquemada  worked  the  institution  vigorously 
till  his  retirement  in  1491.  For  two  Centuries  the  Inquisi- 
tion continued  in  full  force  in  Spain,  and  was  finally  abol- 
ished by  Napoleon  in  1808.  Such  was  the  agency — pow- 
erful, secret,  and  terrible — that  was  now  armed  against 
Protestantism  with  new  powers  by  the  Catholic  Church, 
and  the  persecution  of  heretical  persons  and  the  destruc- 
tion of  heretical  books  had  a  great  effect  in  forwarding 
the  Catholic  revival. 

Lastly,  the  Catholic  Church  took  pains  to  define  afresh 
the  doctrines  which  she  required  to  be  received  and  held 


40  MODERN  EUROPE 

by  the  faithful.  The  Council  of  Trent,  so  called  because 
its  meetings  were  mostly  held  at  the  place  of  that  name, 
met  in  1545  under  the  pontificate  of  Paul  III,  and  sat  at 
intervals  until  1563.  Its  decrees  as  to  faith,  morals,  and 
discipline  are  embodied  in  the  Creed  of  Pius  IV  (Pope 
1559-1566),  and  these  were  unanimously  accepted  by  the 
Catholic  States. 


RISE   OF  THE   DUTCH    REPUBLIC 

The  name  "Netherlands"  now  belongs  to  the  Kingdom 
of  Holland.  In  the  Sixteenth  Century  the  name  denoted  a 
number  of  provinces  extending  from  the  Zuyder  Zee  and 
the  Dollart  to  the  northern  frontier  of  France,  forming 
the  tract  of  fertile  alluvial  land  which  now  comprises  the 
Kingdoms  of  both  Holland  and  Belgium.  Flanders,  the 
southern  portion  of  this  territory,  had  acquired  greatness 
in  manufactures  and  commerce  in  the  Thirteenth  and 
Fourteenth  Centuries,  the  most  flourishing  towns  being 
then  Ghent  and  Bruges.  Early  in  the  Sixteenth  Century 
the  Netherlands  had  come  under  the  rule  of  Charles  V, 
Emperor  of  Germany  and  King  of  Spain.  At  the  Refor- 
mation the  new  faith  made  much  progress  in  the  country, 
and  a  contest  of  sects  arose  amongst  those  who  had  aban- 
doned the  Catholic  Church.  In  1556,  on  the  abdication 
of  Charles  V,  the  Netherlands  had  become  a  part  of  the 
great  dominion  ruled  by  his  son,  Philip  II  of  Spain.  The 
prosperity  of  the  southern  provinces  especially  was  at  this 
time  great,  in  consequence  of  the  valuable  traffic  carried 
on  by  the  merchants  of  Flanders  and  Brabant,  who 
exchanged  the  manufactures  of  the  country  for  the  riches 
drawn  from  America  and  India  by  the  Spanish  and  Portu- 
guese. Antwerp  had  now  succeeded  to  Bruges  as  the  gen- 
eral mart  of  commerce,  and  was  the  richest  town  in  the 
north  of  Europe.  Wool  to  an  enormous  value  was  annually 
imported  from  England  and  Spain  into  the  Netherlands 
for  manufacture  into  cloth.  The  Zealanders  carried  on 
a  most  lucrative  herring  fishery  in  the  Scotch  waters.  The 

41 


42  MODERN  EUROPE 

people  were  strongly  attached  to  liberty  and  chafed  against 
undue  restraint,  the  citizens  of  the  great  manufacturing 
town  of  Ghent  being  especially  unruly  under  slight  or 
oppression.  The  inhabitants  of  the  northern  provinces, 
now  composing  Holland,  included  the  best  sailors  in 
Europe,  famous  for  their  courage  and  skill,  which  had 
been  signally  shown  in  expeditions  made  by  their  Sover- 
eign, Charles  V,  against  the  seats  of  heretical  pirates  at 
Tunis  and  Algiers. 

When  the  reformed  doctrines  made  their  way  into  the 
Netherlands,  Charles  V  combated  the  heresy  with  severe 
measures  of  repression,  which  produced  little  effect.  The 
invention  of  printing  had  produced  its  full  effect  of  gen- 
eral enlightenment  in  the  Netherlands,  and  the  great 
increase  of  wealth  and  luxury  had  been  accompanied  by 
a  keener  taste  for  civil  and  religious  freedom.  Literature 
and  the  arts  had  made  great  progress.  In  the  Fourteenth 
and  Fifteenth  Centuries  Flanders  had  produced  historical 
writers  who  won  great  renown  by  charm  of  style;  among 
these  we  may  name  Froissart  (flourished  about  1370- 
1400),  the  chronicler  of  mediaeval  wars,  and  Philip  de 
Commines  (lived  1445  to  1509),  who  wrote  valuable 
memoirs  on  his  own  times,  when  he  served  Charles  the 
Bold  of  Burgundy  and  Louis  XI  of  France  as  a  nego- 
tiator. Architecture  had  produced  the  cathedrals  and 
town  halls  which  yet  form  one  of  the  principal  charms  of 
the  country  for  tourists.  The  size,  solidity,  and  beauty  of 
design  and  execution  in  these  wonderful  buildings  make 
them  still  speaking  monuments  of  the  stern  magnificence 
and  finished  state  of  the  age  which  brought  them  forth 
from  the  brain  of  the  architect  and  the  hand  of  the  crafts- 
man. The  musicians  of  Flanders  were  celebrated 
throughout  Europe.  John  van  Eyck,  or  John  of  Bruges, 
made  great  improvements  in  the  art  of  painting  in  oil,  and 


RISE  OF  THE  DUTCH  REPUBLIC  43 

in  linear  and  aerial  perspective,  and  has  left  many  exam- 
ples of  his  skill.  Among  the  inventions  due  to  the  Neth- 
erlands were  painting  on  glass,  the  polishing  of  diamonds, 
the  making  of  lace  and  of  tapestry,  and  the  carillon  or 
musical  arrangement  and  working  of  bells,  which  still, 
from  the  fair  aerial  towers  of  Antwerp  and  of  Bruges, 
delight  the  traveler's  ear  as  with  a  song  of  angels  singing 
carols  in  the  sky.  The  University  of  Louvain  was  founded 
in  1425,  and  served  greatly  for  the  spread  of  knowledge, 
though  it  acquired  afterward  an  evil  name  for  fierce  and 
useless  theological  disputes.  The  material  glory  of  the 
Netherlands  was  the  city  of  Antwerp,  which  was  the  great 
outlet  for  the  industry  of  Europe,  and  the  receptacle  for 
the  productions  of  all  the  nations  of  the  known  world. 
Its  port  was  so  often  crowded  with  vessels  that  each  suc- 
cessive fleet  was  obliged  to  wait  long  in  the  River  Scheldt 
before  it  could  obtain  admission  for  the  discharge  of  its 
cargoes.  Such  was  the  land,  such  were  the  people — indus- 
trious, enterprising,  energetic,  enlightened,  wealthy,  and 
aspiring — who  were  handed  over  to  the  rule  of  Philip  II 
soon  after  the  middle  of  the  Sixteenth  Century. 

Philip  II  (reigned  1556-1598)  was  a  cold-blooded 
tyrant,  remarkable  for  bigotry  in  creed  and  impurity  in 
life;  he  was  perfidious,  patient,  plotting,  subtle,  selfish, 
gloomy,  ignorant,  cunning,  and  cruel;  history  scarcely 
presents  us  with  a  character  more  revolting,  more  insensi- 
ble to,  and  more  incapable  of  rousing,  any  human  sym- 
pathy. The  Empire  over  which  this  man  was  called  to 
rule  in  1556  was  one  of  the  most  powerful  and  splendid 
that  ever  existed  in  the  world.  In  Europe  he  ruled  Spain, 
Portugal,  conquered  by  him  in  1581,  the  Netherlands, 
parts  of  what  is  now  territory  in  the  east  and  south  of 
France,  Franche  Comte,  a  part  of  Burgundy,  and  Rous- 
sillon,  by  the  Pyrenees,  the  Milanese,  and  the  two  Sicilies. 


44  MODERN  EUROPE 

Tuscany,  Parma,  and  other  small  Italian  States  were  com- 
pletely subject  to  his  influence.  In  Asia  this  monarch  pos- 
sessed the  Philippine  Islands  and  the  rich  settlements 
which  had  once  belonged  to  Portugal  on  the  coasts  of 
Malabar  and  Coromanidel  (in  India),  in  Malacca,  and  the 
Spice  Islands.  In  America,  Mexico  and  Peru  enriched 
him  with  the  produce  of  their  mines.  He  had  a  revenue 
estimated  at  ten  times  that  which  England  yielded  to 
Elizabeth.  He  had  a  powerful  standing  army,  composed 
of  the  best  soldiers  in  the  world  for  discipline  and  train- 
ing, and  he  was  possessor  of  a  large  and  efficient  fleet.  He 
is  the  only  sovereign  of  modern  times  who  has  been  at  the 
same  moment  supreme  both  on  land  and  on  sea.  The 
power  and  influence  which  Philip  II  for  several  years 
wielded  over  Europe  may  be  even  regarded  as  superior 
to  those  which  once  belonged  to-  Napoleon  I.  Philip  had 
resources  which  Bonaparte  longed  for  in  vain — 'ships,  col- 
onies, and  commerce — the  trade  of  America  and  of  the 
Indian  seas,  the  gold  of  the  West  and  the  spices  of  the 
East.  His  maritime  power  was  an  object  of  dread  to  the 
statesmen  of  England  even  after  the  destruction  of  the 
Armada  had  forever  freed  them  from  fears  of  a  Spanish 
invasion.  Such  was  the  mighty  ruler  defied  by  the  men 
of  the  Netherlands  when  they  were  driven  to  revolt  by 
persecution  and  tyranny.  The  odds  were  fearful;  the 
struggle  long,  arduous,  bloody,  and  desperate;  the  result 
was  that  freedom  issued  from  the  fiery  furnace  unscathed, 
triumphant,  and  secure. 

From  the  time  of  his  accession  to  power  (1556), 
Philip  II  had  taken  measures  calculated  to  break  down 
the  constitutional  liberties  of  his  subjects  in  the  Nether- 
lands; and  he  was  determined,  above  all,  to  root  out  the 
religious  heresy  which  had  made  progress  in  the  country. 
His  proceedings  were  cautious  for  the  first  few,years,  and; 


RISE  OF  THE  DUTCH  REPUBLIC  45 

aimed  at  undermining  the  safeguards  for  freedom  which 
had  been  maintained  under  Charles  V.  The  chief  instru- 
ments of  his  rule  a"t  this  time  were  Margaret,  Duchess  of 
Parma,  a  daughter  of  Charles  V,  and  Cardinal  Granvella, 
Bishop  of  Arras.  As  Philip's  schemes  of  absolutism  were 
by  degrees  unveiled,  popular  indignation  caused  him  to 
remove  Granvella  in  1564;  but  in  1566  his  irrepressible 
bigotry  led  him  to  introduce  the  Inquisition  into  the  coun- 
try, and  this  step  caused  the  outbreak  known  as  the 
"Revolt  of  the  Netherlands,"  which  had  its  issue  in  the 
establishment  of  the  Dutch  Republic.  A  confederation  of 
nobles  was  formed  in  the  southern  provinces;  and  the 
patriotic  league  took,  in  defiance,  the  name  of  the  Gueux, 
or  "Beggars,"  bestowed  on  them  in  derision  by  a  sup- 
porter of  the  tyranny.  The  religious  reformers  of  France 
and  Germany  took  advantage  of  the  occasion  to  pour  into 
the  Netherlands,  and  they  made  great  progress  in  the 
work  of  proselytism,  too  often  accompanied  by  outbursts 
of  fanatical  fury.  The  three  chief  Protestant  sects  were 
those  of  the  Anabaptists,  the  Calvinists,  and  the  Luther- 
ans, the  city  of  Antwerp  being  the  central  point  of  union 
for  them  all,  though  the  only  principle  which  they  held 
in  common  was  their  hatred  against  Catholicism,  the 
Inquisition,  and  Spain.  Fighting  soon  took  place 
between  the  religious  enthusiasts  and  the  authorities,  and 
matters  were  put  beyond  the  reach  of  reconciliation  by  the 
excesses  of  the  fanatics  called  Iconoclasts.  These  furious 
persons  attacked  the  Churches  throughout  Flanders,  Bra- 
bant, and  other  provinces,  plundered  and  ruined  the  inter- 
ior of  the  splendid  cathedral  at  Antwerp,  wrought  similar 
excesses  at  Tournay,  Ghent,  Valenciennes,  Mechlin,  and 
other  towns,  and  pillaged  in  all  several  hundreds  of  Cath- 
olic shrines. 

William  of  Nassau,  Prince  of  Orange,  a  small  terri- 


46  MODERN  EUROPE 

tory  in  the  south-east  of  France,  known  as  "William  the 
Silent,"  from  his  prudence  and  caution  in  diplomacy,  and 
still  gratefully  called  "Father  William"  by  the  Dutch, 
was  the  political  creator  of  the  new  republic.  Born  in 
1533,  he  was  brought  up  as  a  Catholic,  but  became  a  Pro- 
testant in  his  manhood.  Charles  V  discovered  his  abil- 
ity, and  admitted  him  to  his  councils  when  he  was  little 
more  than  a  boy.  Philip  II  had  from  the  first  regarded 
the  Prince  of  Orange  with  a  just  and  jealous  dislike,  dis- 
cerning in  him  a  dangerous  antagonist.  In  subtlety  of 
policy  and  penetration  into  characters  and  into  motives 
of  action,  William  was  fully  a  match,  as  his  career  proves, 
for  Philip  himself,  and  he  made  the  most  energetic  use 
of  his  powers  of  mind  for  the  noble  purpose  of  obtaining 
political  and  religious  freedom  for  his  fellow  subjects. 

The  wrath  of  Philip  was  excited  against  the  whole 
people  of  the  Netherlands 'by  the  doings  of  the  Iconoclasts, 
and  he  resolved  to  crush  by  military  force  all  resistance 
to  his  tyranny.  An  able  Spanish  general,  a  man  of  relent- 
less cruelty,  named  the  Duke  of  Alva,  arrived  at  Brussels 
with  an  army  of  veterans  in  August,  1567,  and  assumed 
the  government  of  the  country.  The  Inquisition  was  at 
once  set  to  work,  the  decrees  of  the  Council  of  Trent  con- 
cerning the  Catholic  religion  were  promulgated,  and  a 
tribunal  was  appointed  which  soon  earned,  from  its  cru- 
elties, the  name  of  the  "Council  of  Blood."  Its  judg- 
ments were  without < appeal;  its  decisions  were  swift  and 
informal;  its  sentences  were  exile,  confiscation,  hanging, 
beheading,  quartering,  and  burning.  Alva  and  his  sup- 
porters reveled  in  the  gold  obtained  by  organized  plunder 
and  the  blood  shed  in  torrents  by  systematic  murder.  It 
was  the  boast  of  Alva  himself,  when  he  laid  down  his 
authority,  after  less  than  six  years'  rule,  that  he  had  caused 
18,000  inhabitants  of  the  Netherlands  to  die  by  the  hands 


RISE  OF  THE  DUTCH  REPUBLIC  47 

of  the  executioner.  William  of  Orange  took  the  field 
against  this  reign  of  tyranny  and  terror  in  1568,  at  the 
head  of  a  force  raised  in  Germany,  and  equipped  by  the 
help  of  the  Huguenots  of  France,  Elizabeth  of  England, 
and  the  German  Protestant  Princes.  He  was  at  first  suc- 
cessful; but  the  patriots  under  his  brother  Louis  of  Nassau 
were  severely  defeated  by  Alva,  and  William's  army 
melted  from  his  want  of  means  to  pay  and  feed  them. 
The  cruelties  o>f  Alva  were  redoubled,  and  William  of 
Orange  retired  to  France  to  watch  events  and  wait  for 
another  chance  of  striking  a  blow. 

In  1572  a  gleam  of  success  for  the  patriots  came  in 
the  capture  of  the  town  of  Brill  (or  Brielle),  on  an  island 
at  the  mouth  o>f  the  Maas.  A  general  revolt  at  once 
occurred  in  Holland  and  Zealand,  and  the  people  declared 
for  the  Prince  of  Orange,  and  henceforth  steadily  sup- 
ported him  in  the  Northern  Netherlands.  William 
marched  into  Brabant  with  a  new  army  of  French,  Ger- 
mans, and  English,  and  Louvain,  Mechlin,  Oudenarcle, 
and  other  towns  were  taken  from  the  Spanish.  A  pow- 
erful fleet  of  Dutch  vessels  was  equipped  in  the  harbor 
of  Flushing;  and  the  Dutch  navy,  soon  to  acquire  such 
fame,  had  begun  to  exist.  The  Spaniards  retook  Haar- 
lem after  a  siege  of  seven  months;  but  it  cost  them  10,000 
men  from  the  desperation  of  the  defense,  and  the  cause 
of  freedom  grew  visibly  stronger.  In  1573  Alva  was 
recalled  and  was  succeeded  by  Requesens,  a  man  of  mild 
character.  The  war  continued  with  alternations  of  suc- 
cess. The  skilled  and  valiant  Spanish  soldiery,  ably  com- 
manded, gained  victories  in  the  open  field,  but  often  failed 
in  sieges.  One  of  the  most  famous  incidents  of  the  war 
was  the  successful  defense,  in  1574,  of  the  city  of  Leyden 
against  force  and  famine;  the  place  being  saved  at  last 
by  cutting  the  dykes  and  letting  in  the  sea  waters,  which 


48  MODERN  EUROPE 

swept  off  the  besiegers  and  brought  up  boats  with  pro- 
visions for  the  starving  people  of  the  town.  At  all  points 
of  the  heroic  struggle  William  o>f  Orange  was  present 
either  in  person  or  in  spirit,  with  prudent  counsel,  watch- 
ful care,  and  inflexible  resolve.  In  1575  the  Spanish 
arms  had  more  success;  early  in  1576  Requesens  died; 
in  November  of  that  year  occurred  the  awful  event  known 
as  the  "Spanish  Fury,"  at  Antwerp,  when  a  large  body 
of  Spanish  mutinous  troops  stormed  and  sacked  the  town, 
burning  the  Town  Hall  and  hundreds  of  the  better  houses, 
slaughtering  thousands  of  the  citizens,  plundering  in  reck- 
less madness  for  three  days,  and  reducing  the  richest  city 
in  Europe  to  desolation  and  ruin.  The  representatives  of 
the  provinces  -of  the  Netherlands  were  at  this  very  mom- 
ent assembled  at  Ghent,  and  the  treaty  was  drawn  up 
known  as  the  Pacification  of  Ghent,  by  which  the  prov- 
inces in  the  South  bound  themselves  to  aid  the  Prince  of 
Orange  and  the  provinces  of  Holland  and  Zealand  to 
expel  the  Spanish  forces,  by  any  and  by  all  means,  from 
the  territory  of  the  Netherlands.  By  January,  1578,  how- 
ever, the  Spanish  arms  were  again  triumphant  in  the 
Southern  Netherlands,  where  the  population  was  chiefly 
Catholic,  as  in  Belgium  now,  and  those  provinces  finally 
submitted  to  Spain. 

The  Prince  of  Orange,  in  January,  1579,  by  the  Union 
of  Utrecht,  formed  the  northern  provinces  into  a  close 
league,  and  thus  founded  the  Republic  of  the  United  Neth- 
erlands. In  1580  Philip  II's  hatred  led  him  to  put  a  price 
on  William's  head,  payable  to  whoever  should  assassinate 
him.  The  United  Provinces  then  renounced  their  alle- 
giance to  Philip,  and  William  of  Orange  was  appointed 
Sovereign-Count  of  Holland  and  Zealand. 

In  July,  1584,  the  Prince  of  Orange  was  assassinated 
in  his  house  at  Delft  by  a  Burgundian  fanatic  named  Eal- 


RISE  OF  THE  DUTCH  REPUBLIC  49 

thazar  Gerard,  who  fired  three  balls  into  his  left  side  from 
a  huge  pistol.  The  murderer  was  seized  and  executed. 

William's  son,  Prince  Maurice  of  Nassau,  succeeded 
to  his  power  in  the  United  Provinces,  and  fought  bravely 
and  ably  against  Spain.  The  famous  Duke  of  Parma, 
Alexander  Farnese,  one  of  the  greatest  generals  of  mod- 
ern times,  was  now  (1585)  in  command  of  the  Spanish 
forces,  and  his  success  in  his  great  siege  of  Antwerp  was 
a  grievous  blow  to  the  patriotic  cause.  Elizabeth  of  Eng- 
land gave  some  ineffectual  help,  and  in  1586  Sir  Philip 
Sydney  died  gallantly  and  uselessly  at  Zutphen.  The 
stubbornness  of  the  Dutch  alone  enabled  them  to  resist  the 
genius  and  determination  of  Parma,  but  they  did  succeed 
in  wearing  him  out  at  last,  and  Prince  Maurice  captured 
some  towns  from  the  Spanish  in  1592;  at  the  end  of  the 
year  the  great  Spanish  leader  died  of  disease. 

In  1598,  after  further  successes  of  Prince  Maurice 
in  the  northern  provinces,  Philip  II  made  the  southern 
provinces,  now  Belgium,  into  an  independent  sovereignty 
under  his  nephew,  the  Archduke  Albert  of  Austria.  In 
September,  1598,  Philip  II  died,  and  the  Dutch  Republic 
had  got  rid  of  her  deadly  and  relentless  foe.  We  cannot 
here  pursue  the  fortunes  of  the  rising  State;  it  must  suf- 
fice to  say  that  in  1609  the  Spanish  government  made  a 
truce  with  the  Republic,  virtually,  though  not  formally 
till  1648,  recognizing  Holland  as  an  independent  power. 

The  protracted  and  dreadful  war  which  had  ended  in 
establishing  the  Dutch  Republic  severely  injured  the  south- 
ern Netherlands.  Many  thousands  of  the  able  artisans 
had  fled  from  the  tyranny  of  Alva  into  England,  Germany, 
and  Holland.  Antwerp  was  ruined  by  the  shocking  event 
above  recorded,  and  its  trade  and  prosperity  passed  to 
Amsterdam,  Rotterdam,  and  the  towns  of  Holland  and 

Zealand.     The  growth  of  Dutch  commerce  is  shown  in 
Vox,.  2 — 4 


50  MODERN  EUROPE 

the  establishment  of  the  India  Company  in  1 596,  and  the 
men  of  the  Northern  Netherlands  soon  superseded  the 
Portuguese  and  surpassed  the  English  in  the  trade  with 
India,  and  established  themselves  without  dispute  in  the 
seas  further  east.  As  a  maritime  people  they  became 
the  first  in  the  world,  owning  1,200  merchant  ships  in 
Europe,  manned  by  70,000  sailors,  being  the  great  ship- 
builders for  all  nations,  and  reaping  in  all  quarters  of  the 
globe  the  reward  of  skill,  industry,  and  courage.  The 
Jews  driven  from  Spain  and  Portugal  took  refuge  in  Hol- 
land and  added  to  the  prosperity  of  her  trade.  The 
Dutch  Republic  had  taken  her  place  among  the  Nations 
of  Europe  in  legitimate  pride  and  with  undeniable 
resources  and  power. 


ENGLAND  UNDER  THE  TUDORS 

In  England  the  Reformation  was  brought  about 
without  civil  war.  The  divorce  of  Henry  VIII  from 
Catherine  was  the  occasion  but  not  the  cause  of  its  being 
accomplished.  The  event  in  itself  was  but  the  natural 
result  of  the  workings  of  a  man  tyrannical  by  nature  and 
who  could  not  brook  interference  in  spiritual  affairs  any 
more  than  he  could  in  temporal  matters.  His  prede- 
cessor, Henry  VII,  had  striven  as  much  as  possible  to 
rule  without  Parliament.  Flattered  and  submitted  to  by 
dependents,  Henry  VIII  was  unequal  to  the  great  cir- 
cumstances among  which  he  was  thrown.  The  growth 
of  tyrannical  passions  in  Henry  was  due  to  the  un- 
checked arrogance  and  self  assertion  of  a  stubborn  will 
that  nothing  could  turn  from  a  purpose  once  formed. 
Ruin  of  fortune  or  death  by  the  headsman's  axe  were 
the  risks  run  by  Ministers  and  courtiers  who,  after  long 
and  faithful  service  should  venture  to  thwart  his  aims 
or  offend  his  pride.  Yet  he  courted  popular  favor  and 
he  gained  it.  At  the  very  outset  of  his  reign  he  aimed 
at  popular  measures.  The  old  dream  of  French  con- 
quest had  not  yet  vanished  from  the  minds  of  English 
sovereigns  and  Henry  was  persuaded  to  join  his  father- 
in-law,  Ferdinand  of  Spain,  in  a  league  against  France. 
He  sent  over  a  demand  for  the  immediate  restitution  of 
his  just  heritage  of  Anjou,  Maine,  Normandy,  and  Gui- 
enne.  TJie  English  were  as  vain  and  insolent  as  their 
King,  and  made  little  doubt  of  seeing  him  crowned  in 
Paris.  The  result  was  a  series  of  brilliant  but  useless 
victories,  and  such  was  always  the  history  of  his  wars.  The 

5* 


52  MODERN  EUROPE 

two  periods  of  really  active  warfare  in  his  reign  came 
at  its  two  ends.  From  1512  to  1514  was  a  time  of 
war,  a  time  of  victory,  on  the  part  of  England.  The 
one  year  1513  saw  the  defeat  of  the  invading  Scots  on 
Flodden  Field,  and  the  conquest  of  Therouenne  and 
Turnay  by  the  King  of  England,  in  person.  Again,  in 
1522  and  1523,  Scotland  and  France  were  successfully 
invaded.  Eighteen  years  later,  in  1541,  the  Scottish 
wars  began  again;  two  years  later  England  and  the 
Empire  were  allied  against  France  and  Scotland.  In 
1544  England  was  again  successful  over  both  enemies. 
While  the  King  in  person  took  Boulogne,  his  brother- 
in-law  burned  Edinburgh  and  laid  waste  Scotland,  as 
far  as  it  came  into  his  power. 

Neither  by  his  diplomacy  nor  his  successes  did 
Henry  VIII  accomplish  anything  for  England  during 
his  reign.  However,  his  victories  enabled  him  to  carry 
the  people  with  him  in  his  more  important  meas- 
ures at  home,  such  as  the  minimizing  of  the  in- 
fluence of  Parliament  and  the  English  Reforma- 
tion. The  temporary  dictatorship  which  he  held  by 
the  popular  will,  and  largely  by  the  result  of  his  use- 
less but  glorious  victories,  enabled  him  to  make  radical 
changes.  Henry's  right  hand  for  many  years  was 
Thomas  Wolsey,  who  came  to  the  head  of  affairs  in 
1515.  The  son  of  a  butcher  and  afterward  Court  Chap- 
lain, he  rose  to  be  the  only  man  in  England  at  the  head 
of  both  the  Church  and  the  State.  He  was  Cardinal 
and  Prime  Minister,  and  aimed  to  become  Pope. 
With  his  own  ambition  he  mingled  that  of  his.  temporal 
chief,  and  to  him  was  due  the  strength  of  England 
in  diplomacy  and  the  ease  with  which  grants  of  money 
were  made  from  Parliament.  With  Wolsey  at  his  side, 
Henry  had  become  one  of  the  most  ardent  support- 


ENGLAND  UNDER  THE  TUDORS     53 

ers  of  the  Papal  authority  in  the  struggle  during  the 
early  days  of  the  Reformation.  He  had  even  gone 
to  the  length  of  writing  a  letter  in  answer  to  Luther's 
arguments,  which  led  Leo  X  to  grant  him  the  right 
to  add  "Defender  of  the  Faith"  to  his  titles.  But  a 
woman's  face  changed  history.  The  marriage  with 
homely  Catherine  of  Aragon,  staid  and  elderly,  had 
never  pleased  Henry  VIII,  and  he  wished  divorce,  that 
he  might  wed  the  young  and  gay  and  beautiful  Anne 
Boleyn,  one  of  the  maids  of  honor  to  the  Queen.  It 
is  said  that  his  desire  for  a  male  heir  was  also  respon- 
sible for  his  wish  for  a  new  wife.  To  marry  Anne,  it 
was  necessary  to  get  rid  of  Catherine,  and  so,  in  1527, 
Henry  asked  the  Pope  to  pronounce  the  union  null 
and  void,  on  the  ground  that  she  had  been  his  brother's 
widow.  The  Pope  was  in  the  power  of  Spain,  and 
temporized.  When  the  time  came  for  a  choice,  he  dared 
not  offend  Spain  by  granting  the  divorce,  even  had  he 
been  willing  to  countenance  such  illegal  proceedings. 
Catherine  was  niece  of  Charles  V,  the  great  champion 
of  the  Church  in  its  fight  against  Protestantism.  The 
King  suspected  Wolsey  of  having  thwarted  his  plans. 
With  Henry,  to  suspect  was  to  condemn  unheard.  He 
dismissed  Wolsey,  who  died  of  broken  spirit  before  he 
could  be  tried  for  treason. 

The  period  from  the  fall  of  Wolsey  to  the  fall  of 
his  successor,  Thomas  Cromwell,  is  perhaps  the  most 
extraordinary  in  English  history,  as  it  is  perhaps  the 
most  important.  During  this  period  were  broken,  link 
by  link,  all  of  the  chains  which  bound  England  to  the 
Papacy,  and  the  country  disparted  from  that  system 
of  the  Nations  which  men  had  come  to  regard  as  no 
less  divinely  ordered  than  the  system  of  the  heavens 
itself.  The  severance  of  England  from  Rome  was  car- 


54  MODERN  EUROPE 

ried  through  by  Parliament  of  1529  to  1536,  summoned 
after  an  interval  of  seven  years,  and  largely  composed 
of  the  creatures  of  the  King.  Despite  the  coldness  of 
the  Pope,  Henry  was  as  determined  as  ever  on  his 
divorce,  and  equally  determined  that  he  would  not 
plead  his  cause  at  Rome,  which  would  have  been  a  direct 
admission  of  the  Papal  supremacy.  By  way  of  reliev- 
ing the  scruples  of  the  Pope,  the  case  was  submitted 
to  the  various  Universities  of  Europe.  Their  verdict 
was  not  unanimous,  but  the  majority  declared  that 
Henry's  scruples  were  justified.  The  Pope,  however, 
with  the  fear  of  the  Emperor  before  him,  would  not 
be  moved  from  his  position.  And,  meanwhile,  the  Eng- 
lish Parliament,  inspired  by  the  King,  proceeded  with 
its  work.  By  humbling  the  clergy,  Henry  doubtless 
thought  that  he  would  be  most  likely  to  bring  the 
Pope  to  terms.  Accordingly,  one  blow  after  another 
was  struck  at  their  privileges,  until  they  were  taught 
that  their  real  master  was,  not  the  Pope  of  Rome,  but 
the  King  of  England.  In  1531,  by  one  of  the  meanest 
tricks  that  ever  king  played,  the  whole  estate  of  the 
clergy  was  held  to  have  fallen  into  a  prsemunire,  by 
admitting  the  legatine  authority  of  Wolsey,  which  he 
had  exercised  with  the  King's  full  sanction,  Their  par- 
don was  bought  only  by  an  enormous  subsidy,  and  by 
acknowledging  the  King  as  supreme  head  on  earth 
of  the  Church  of  England,  a  form  of  words  now  heard 
for  the  first  time.  In  1532,  when  all  hope  of  a  favor- 
able judgment  from  Rome  had  passed  by,  Henry  is 
believed  to  have  privately  married  Anne.  In  1533  the 
death  of  Archbishop  Warren  made  room  for  the  pro- 
motion of  Thomas  Cranmer  to  the  See  of  Canterbury, 
a  promotion  which  was  made  by  a  show  of  Papal 
authority.  The  first  act  of  the  new  primate  was  to 


ENGLAND  UNDER  THE  TUDORS     55 

hold  a  court,  which  declared  the  marriage  of  Catherine 
null  and  the  marriage  with  Anne  lawful.  Then  came 
the  great,  legislation  of  the  year  1534,  by  which  the 
Papal  authority  was  wholly  abolished,  while  the  Act  of 
Submission  on  the  part  of  the  clergy,  subordinated 
all  ecclesiastical  legislation  within  the  Kingdom  to  the 
royal  will.  The  succession  to  the  crown  was  settled 
in  favor  of  the  issue  of  Anne,  to  the  exclusion  of  the 
issue  of  Catherine,  and  the  punishment  of  treason  was 
denounced  against  all  who  refused  to  swear  to  the  suc- 
cession so  ordained.  The  title  of  Supreme  Head  of  the 
Church  of  England,  already  voted  by  the  clergy,  was 
now  bestowed  by  Parliament,  and  full  ecclesiastical 
powers  were  annexed  to  it.  These  powers  were 
allowed  to  be  exercised  by  deputy,  and  in  1535  Crom- 
well was  made  Vicegerent  for  the.  King  in  ecclesiastical 
matters,  with  precedence  in  ecclesiastical  convocation 
over  the  Metropolitan  himself.  On  the  other  hand,  a 
strict  statute  was  passed  for  the  suppression  of  heresy. 
The  scheme  of  Henry  was  now  fully  established;  the 
religion  of  England  was  Popery  without  the  Pope. 

Professors  of  reformed  doctrines  did  not  gain  any 
direct  results  by  the  change;  but  a  direction  was  taken 
in  the  toleration  of  dissent.  So  great  a  change  could 
not  fail  to  lead  to  further  changes,  and  the  next  six 
years  of  Henry's  reign  were  a  time  in  which  all  the 
influences  at  work  were  in  the  direction  of  further 
change,  although  Henry  insisted  that,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  headship  of  the  Pope,  all  Catholic  doctrines 
were  to  be  observed  after  the  strictest  orthodoxy. 

Thomas  Cromwell's  reign  of  terror,  as  it  has  been 
well  called,  now  sets  in.  It  is  especially  remarkable  for 
the  constant  use  of  Acts  of  Attainder — acts  sometimes 
passed  without  giving  the  accused  person  the  oppor- 


56  MODERN  EUROPE 

tunity  of  making  any  defense.  Not  that  in  Henry's 
reign  a  defense  went  for  anything,  even  when  the  regu- 
lar forms  of  trial  by  a  man's  peers  were  observed.  It 
was  deemed  for  the  King's  honor  that  those  whom  the 
King  accused  should  be  convicted,  and  the  Lords  or 
the  jury  convicted  accordingly.  In  more  than  one  case 
entries  were  found  in  Cromwell's  papers  directing  that 
such  and  such  a  person  should  be  tried  and  executed. 
Meanwhile,  new  treasons  and  other  crimes  were 
invented.  Martyrs  were  made  on  both  sides.  The 
supposed  traitor  and  the  supposed  heretic  were  some- 
times drawn  to  death  on  the  same  hurdle.  But  the 
death  of  particular  persons  seemed  but  a  small  matter 
beside  the  great  revolution  which  Cromwell  wrought 
over  the  whole  face  of  the  country  by  his  great  work, 
the  suppression  of  the  monasteries.  By  order  of  the 
King,  Cromwell  had  made  a  report  on  their  condition. 
It  justified  the  most  drastic  dealings,  although  the  com- 
missioners were  apt  to  make  the  best  possible  case 
for  the  King,  and  they  gave  plenty  of  one-sided  evi- 
dence to  prove  that  they  had  outlived  their  usefulness 
and  were  a  detriment,  rather  than  an  aid,  to  public 
morals.  On  the  strength  of  this  report  an  act  was 
passed  (in  1536)  for  the  suppression  of  all  the  monas- 
teries with  a  revenue  of  less  than  £200  a  year.  The 
year  following  the  suppression  of  the  small  monasteries 
a  formidable  insurrection,  known  as  the  Pilgrimage  of 
Grace,  was  organized  in  the  northern  counties,  under 
the  leadership  of  a  barrister  named  Robert  Aske.  The 
revolt  was  crushed,  and  failed  in  all  its  objects,  for  the 
very  next  year  Henry  gave  a  final  blow  to  the  ancient 
Church  by  the  suppression  of  all  the  remaining  monas- 
teries. The  revenues  of  the  monasteries,  to  the  amount 
of  nearly  £161,000,  were  devoted  to  small  pensions  for 


ENGLAND  UNDER  THE  TUDORS     57 

the  Abbots  and  Priors,  and  for  the  erection  of  six  new 
bishoprics.  The  bulk  of  the  revenues,  however,  passed 
to  the  crown  and  those  who  made  themselves  useful 
to  the  King.  By  far  the  greater  part  of  the  vast  reve- 
nues of  the  monastic  houses  was  squandered  or  gambled 
away  among  the  courtiers.  Churches  and  church- 
yards were  granted  to  private  men,  to  be  destroyed  or 
desecrated  at  their  pleasure. 

Cromwell  was  now  the  most  powerful  man  in  the 
Kingdom,  but  his  fall,  like  Wolsey's,  came  through  the 
King's  passion  for  marriage.  In  1536  Queen  Catherine 
died,  and  the  same  year  Anne  Boleyn,  of  whom  the 
King  had  tired,  was  executed  in  the  Tower  on  the 
charge  of  infidelity  to  the  King.  The  very  day  after 
her  execution,  Henry  was  married  to  Jane  Seymour, 
who  died  giving  birth  to  a  son,  afterward  Edward  VI. 
The  succession  being  still  insecure,  Henry  then  took 
Anne  of  Cleves  as  his  fourth  wife,  in  hope  of  attaching 
Germany's  interests  to  those  of  England.  Henry  was 
persuaded  to  marry  Anne  by  a  portrait  Cromwell  had 
shown  him.  When  he  found  that  Anne  was  extremely 
homely  in  appearance,  he  accused  Cromwell  o>f  treason, 
and  had  him  executed  by  Bill  of  Attainder,  without  the 
form  of  a  trial.  Anne  was  divorced,  and  Henry  married 
Catherine  Howard,  who,  within  a  few  months,  was  exe- 
cuted for  infidelity — in  her  case,  proved  beyond  dispute. 
A  year  later,  in  1543,  he  married  his  sixth  and  last  wife, 
Catherine  Parr,  who  had  the  good  fortune  to  survive 
him.  During  the  last  years  of  'his  reign  the  most 
important  question  was  that  of  succession,  and,  although 
the  King's  daughters  had  been  declared  illegitimate, 
they  were  now  placed  in  order  of  the  succession  of  the 
crown  after  Edward,  without  being  declared  legitimate. 
The  order  of  succession  was  placed  at  Edward,  Mary, 


58  MODERN  EUROPE 

and  Elizabeth.  On  no  theory  of  law  could  Mary  and 
Elizabeth  be  both  legitimate,  and  the  law  had  declared 
that  neither  of  them  was.  The  point  is  of  importance, 
for  in  truth  neither  Mary  nor  Elizabeth  reigned  by  any 
right  of  birth,  but  by  a  mere  Parliamentary  title. 

The  reigns  of  his  three  children  followed  that  of 
Henry  in  succession,  according  to  the  statute.  The 
marked  historical  feature  of  these  reigns  is  that  they  are 
the  time  of  strictly  religious  reformation.  It  was  found 
that  the  middle  system  of  Henry  could  not  last;  that 
the  English  Church  and  Nation  must  throw  its  lot  with 
one  side,  or  the  other  in  the  great  controversy  of  the 
age.  Under  Edward  the  religious  reformation  was 
wrought.  Under  Mary  the  work  of  Edward  and  then 
of  Henry  was  undone,  and  the  authority  of  Rome  again 
admitted.  Under  Elizabeth  the  work  of  both  Henry 
and  Edward  was  done  again.  Her  reign,  four  times  the 
length  of  the  two  reigns  of  her  brother  and  sister,  is 
the  time  when  the  religious  position  of  England  took 
its  final  form.  The  National  Church  was  organized  in 
its  essential  features  as  it  still  remains.  A  main  feature 
of  the  later  religious  history  of  England  has  been  the 
steps  by  which  the  first  Protestant  dissenters  and  then 
the  Roman  Catholics  have  been  admitted  to  full  equality 
with  the  members  of  the  National  Church. 

Edward's  reign  (1547-1553)  was  without  political 
effect,  though  it  lasted  six  years.  During  her  reign 
Mary  (1553-1558)  married  Philip  II,  and  lost  Calais, 
the  last  English  possession  in  France.  She  is  remem- 
bered as  "Bloody  Mary,"  for  her  slaughter  of  Protes- 
tants, of  whom  300  were  burnt  alive. 

The  reign  of  Elizabeth  (1558-1603)  is  one  of  the 
most  brilliant  periods  of  English  history.  No  nobler 
group  of  ministers  were  ever  gathered  around  a  council 


ENGLAND  UNDER  THE  TUDORS     59 

board  than  that  headed  by  Lord  Burleigh.  Though 
vain,  frivolous,  knowing  nothing  of  womanly  reserve  or 
self-restraint  in  private  life,  with  her  ministers  Eliza- 
beth became  as  a  man,  and  if  any  trace  of  her  sex 
lingered  in  her  actual  statesmanship,  it  was  in  her 
womanly  tenacity  of  purpose.  She  was  one  of  the  ablest 
statesmen  of  her  time,  and  her  singular  character  has 
made  her  deserve  a  place  in  the  volume  on  the  "World's 
Famous  Women,"  and  the  reader  will  there  find  refer- 
ences upon  many  events  of  the  reign  upon  which  we 
cannot  dwell  here.  There  will  be  found  the  famous 
story  of  her  difficulties  with  Mary  Stuart,  Queen  of 
Scotland,  which  was  a  quarrel  both  of  women  and  of 
kingdoms. 

England  was  at  war  with  France,  and  in  close  alli- 
ance with  Spain,  at  the  death  of  Mary  Tudor.  This 
state  of  things  lasted  during  the  early  part  of  Elizabeth's 
reign.  She  helped  the  French  Protestants,  but  she  con- 
cluded peace  in  1564.  During  the  rest  of  her  reign  the 
old  enmity  to  France  died  out.  The  accession  of  Henry 
of  Navarre  made  Francei  and  England  friends.  As 
enmity  for  France -died  out,  so  friendship  for  Spain  died 
out  also*.  Philip,  at  first  a  suitor  for  Elizabeth's  hand, 
became  her  most  dangerous  enemy.  It  was  he  who  sent 
the  famous  Spanish  Armada  to  attack  England  and  con- 
quer the  land  which  he  claimed.  When  the  news  that 
Philip  meditated  the  expedition  came,  Admiral  Drake 
was  sent  to  Cadiz,  where  he  burnt  a  hundred  vessels  full 
of  stores,  and  caused  the  expedition  to  be  postponed  for 
a  year.  But  when  it  did  come  it  was  none  the  less  for- 
midable for  that.  It  consisted  of  132  ships  (besides 
caravels),  3,165  cannon,  2,088  galley  slaves,  21,855  s°l~ 
diers,  1,355  volunteers,  and  150  monks,  with  Martin 
Alaraco,  Vicar  of  the  Inquisition,  and  was  commanded 


60  MODERN  EUROPE 

by  the  Duke  of  Medina-Sidonia.  A  rudely  armed  and 
ill-trained  militia,  consisting  of  all  the,  men  between 
sixteen  and  sixty  years  of  age,  was  gathered  by 
the  English,  but,  fortunately,  they  were  not  matched 
against  Philip's  veterans.  By  the  advice  of  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh,  it  was  resolved  at  all  hazards  to  meet  the  foe 
at  sea  and  endeavor  to  prevent  the  landing  of  the  troops. 
The  English  fleet  consisted  of  thirty-four  vessels  of  the 
navy  and  a  number  of  hastily  armed  merchant  ships. 
On  July  19,  1588,  the  Armada,  dispersed  once  by  a 
storm  in  May,  entered  the  Channel,  sailing  in  a  crescent 
of  seven  miles  in  width  from  horn  to  horn.  Ship  after 
ship  was  lost  to  the  Spaniards  by  surrender  and  destruc- 
tion, as  the  fleet  advanced.  The  Spanish  thought 
the  English  and  their  Dutch  allies,  who  had  come  to 
their  aid,  would  run  at  the  sight  of  the  Invincible 
Armada,  as  Philip  called  it.  But  they  did  not,  and  on 
July  29  Drake  sent  eight  fire  ships,  well  alight  and 
filled  with  combustibles  and  explosives,  drifting  down 
with  wind  and  tide  among  the  crowded  ships.  In  ter- 
rible consternation  the  Spanish  tried  to  escape  to  the 
sea,  and  the  English  pursued  them  at  a  great  advantage. 
A  storm  came  up  and  drove  the  Spaniards  among  rocks 
and  shoals,  and  the  swift  end  of  the  "Invincible  Armada" 
was  that  it  lost  thirty  ships  and  10,000  men,  and, 
defeated  and  disgraced,  sailed  home  again. 

England,  by  her  wars  with  Spain,  and  especially  that 
in  which  she  aided  the  Netherlands,  stood  out  as  the 
great  Protestant  power  of  Europe.  And  in  Elizabeth's 
reign  England  became  more  than  a  European  power. 
Then  was  laid  the  foundations  of  her  great  colonial  sys- 
tem. American  colonization  did  not,  as  yet,  really 
begin,  and  Indian  colonization  was  yet  more  distant, 
but  the  defeat  of  the  Armada  showed  the  English  their 


ENGLAND  UNDER  THE  TUDORS     61 

power  at  sea,  and  the  seamen  of  England  now  broke  into 
the  maritime  preserve  of  Spain.  The  English  had 
always  been  considerable  traders,  although  England 
formerly  produced  little  but  raw  materials.  The  prod- 
uce of  England,  however,  steadily  increased  after  the 
Wars  of  the  Roses.  The  woolen  manufacture  sprang 
into  being,  and  the  English  had  learned  from  the  Italian 
merchants,  who  had  long  since  been  settled  in  Lon- 
don, to  improve  their  vessels  and  carry  their  own  com- 
modities to  ports  of  Europe.  In  olden  times,  England 
had  been  supplied  with  Indian  produce  by  an  annual  ship 
from  Venice.  They  traded  to  Turkey  for  it  as  early 
as  the  time  of  Henry  VII,  and  Frobisher  tried  to  dis- 
cover the  northwest  passage  to  India.  Sir  Francis 
Drake  was  the  first  Englishman  to  sail  to  the  Indian 
Archipelago  (1577-1580),  and  the  success  of  his  voyage 
turned  attention  to  the  East.  The  Western  Continent 
was  not  neglected.  Possession  was  taken,  in  the  name 
of  a  whole,  of  a  part  of  North  America,  and  the  land 
was  named  Virginia,  in  honor  of  the  Virgin  Queen. 
Companies  were  formed  on  the  Dutch  model  for  plant- 
ing them  with  settlers.  When  Spain  was  shown  to  be 
too  weak  to  drive  them  off,  the  merchants  of  London 
were  not  slow  to  compete  with  those  of  Amsterdam  for 
the  commerce  which  was  fast  slipping  from  the  grip 
of  the  Portuguese,  and  on  the  last  day  of  the  Sixteenth 
Century  the  first  East  India  Company  was  given  its 
charter.  The  great  seamen  of  Elizabeth's  day — Drake, 
Gilbert,  and  Cavendish — like  the  others  of  their  day, 
were  little  better  than  pirates,  plundering  the  natives 
of  the  lands  they  visited,  and  robbing  the  ships  they 
met  at  sea  flying  other  flags.  Aside  from  piracy,  carried 
on  under  the  name  of  privateering,  from  Elizabeth's 
day  dates  the  English  engaging  in  the  slave  trade,  and 


62  MODERN  EUROPE 

the  kidnaping  and  selling  of  negroes  became  an 
important  part  of  English  commerce.  It  is  well  known 
that  the  colonists  in  later  days  were  forced  to  buy  the 
cargoes  of  slaves  sent  them  from  England. 

In  spite  of  many  arbitrary  acts  of  monarchical  power, 
the  cause  of  popular  freedom  was  advanced  during  the 
reign  of  Elizabeth.  The  existing  laws  were  strained, 
impartial  jurors  punished,  and  men  imprisoned  without 
warrant,  while  troublesome  members  of  Parliament  were 
suspended.  Yet  there  was  some  progress,  in  that  these 
evils  were  carried  to  a  less  extent  than  in  previous  reigns. 
In  civilization,  however,  in  spite  of  the  intellectual  bril- 
liancy of  an  age  which  produced  Shakespeare  and 
Bacon,  England  was  behind  other  nations.  Only  about 
one-fourth  of  the  land  was  tilled,  manufactures  were 
few,  and  the  artisans  unskilled.  The  population  of 
5,000,000  was  ignorant  and  superstitious,  and  Francis 
Bacon  himself  refused  to  believe  in  the  true  theory  of 
the  solar  system  as  expounded  by  Copernicus.  It  was 
still  believed  that  the  royal  touch  could  cure  scrofula. 
Medical  science  had  no  Ambrose  Paire;  witches  were 
punished,  and  nearly  everybody  believed  in  all  kinds  of 
spirits,  good  and  bad,  fairies  and  imps,  and  elves  and 
goblins.  Bear-baiting,  bull-baiting,  and  cock-fighting 
were  the  delights  of  the  court.  The  foremost  pastimes 
in  the  age  of  "Good  Queen  Bess"  were  gaming  and 
drunkenness.  In  architecture  was  seen  the  chief  sign 
of  progress,  with  the  appearance  of  chimneys,  and  of 
houses  of  brick  and  stone. 


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THE  TURKS  AND  OTHER  NATIONS  IN  THE 
SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

During  the  Sixteenth  Century  the  power  of  the 
Ottoman  conquerors  continued  to  grow.  Sultan  Selim 
I  conquered,  in  1517,  Egypt,  Syria,  and  Palestine,  and 
took  possession  of  Mecca,  the  Holy  City,  in  Arabia. 
Soliman  II  (the  "Magnificent")  reigned  from  1519  to 
1566.  In  1522  he  took  Rhodes  from  the  Knights  of 
St.  John.  He  then  turned  his  arms  against  Hungary, 
which  had  been  frequently  exposed  to  Turkish  assaults 
since  the  first  appearance  of  the  Ottoman  power  in 
Europe,  and  served  as  a  bulwark  to  the  rest  of  the  con- 
tinent. Hungary  had  become  a  powerful  Kingdom 
under  Matthias  Corvinus  (reigned  1458-1490),  who 
ruled  with  a  firm  hand,  secured  internal  order  and  organ- 
ization, and  was  an  able  General  and  diplomatist.  His 
measures  for  judicial  administration  were  such  that  it 
was  long  a  proverb  in  Hungary,  "King  Matthias  is  dead, 
and  justice  with  him."  He  founded  the  University  of 
Pressburg,  and  did  much  for  Hungarian  civilization. 
Under  his  successors  things  went  badly  for  Hungary 
early  in  the  Sixteenth  Century.  Oppression  by  the 
nobles  caused  insurrection  of  the  peasants,  which 
greatly  weakened  the  State,  and  were  with  difficulty 
suppressed.  In  1526  the  first  battle  of  Mohacs  (in 
South  of  Hungary,  on  the  Danube)  sealed  the  country's 
fate  for  many  years.  There  Soliman  II,  at  the  head  of 
a  great  Turkish  host,  defeated  and  slew  Louis  II  of 
Hungary,  and  for  160  years  henceforth  a  great  part  of 
the  country  was  a  province  of  the  Ottoman  Empire  in 

63 


64  MODERN  EUROPE 

Europe.  In  Asia,  Soliman  deprived  the  Persians,  in  war, 
of  Bagdad,  Mesopotamia,  and  Georgia.  After  his 
great  success  in  Hungary,  Soliman  threatened  to  over- 
run Germany,  and  to  plant  the  standard  of  Mohammed 
in  Western  Europe,  but  was  checked  by  defeat  under 
the  walls  of  Vienna  in  1529,  when  Charles  V  was  in 
power. 

At  this  period  Turkey  was  formidable  on  the  sea, 
and  the  Ottoman  Admirals  swept  the  Mediterranean, 
conquered  Northern  Africa,  and  landed  troops  who 
ravaged  Minorca,  Sicily,  Apulia,  and  Corfu.  Charles 
V  succeeded  in  rallying  the  forces  of  Christendom 
against  the  Turks.  The  Venetians  resisted  their  galleys 
on  the  sea.  The  great  Genoese  Admiral,  Andrea  Doria, 
who,  in  1529,  reorganized  the  Republic  of  Genoa  on 
a  new  and  permanent  basis,  took  territory  from  the 
Turks  in  Greece  in  1532,  and  in  1535  helped  Charles 
V  to  capture  Tunis.  Ten  Sultans,  all  of  them  brave  and 
warlike,  had  now  for  two  centuries  and  a  half  raised 
the  power  of  the  Crescent,  but  the  internal  strength  of 
the  State  was  undeveloped.  In  1538  Soliman  II  united 
the  priestly  dignity  of  the  Caliphate  to  the  Ottoman 
Porte,  making  the  Turkish  Sultan  the  spiritual  head  of 
the  Mohammedan  races,  but  the  conquered  Nations 
were  not  incorporated  into  an  organic  whole,  and  after 
Soliman's  death,  in  1566,  the  power  of  the  Ottoman 
Empire  declined.  The  Sovereigns  ceased  to  have  ability 
and  energy;  the  Nation  sank  into  ignorance  and  slavery; 
rapacious  and  arbitrary  Pashas  ruled  the  provinces; 
while  Europe  made  rapid  progress  in  the  arts  of  war  and 
peace,  the  Ottoman  Nation  and  Government  remained 
inactive  and  stationary.  Blindly  attached  to  their  doc- 
trines of  absolute  fate,  and  elated  by  former  military 
glory,  the  Turks  looked  upon  foreigners  with  contempt 


TURKS  AND  OTHER  NATIONS  65 

as  infidels  (Giaours).  Without  any  settled  plan,  or  on 
any  principles  other  than  those  of  religious  hatred,  and 
thirst  for  conquest,  they  fought  with  Venice,  Hungary, 
and  Poland.  Dangerous  revolts  occurred  among  the 
provincial  Governors  (Pashas)  and  the  petted  soldiers, 
called  Janizaries.  The  despotic  Sultans  used  the  dag- 
ger and  bow-string  freely  against  suspected  persons, 
and  the  ablest  Viziers  or  Ministers  were  sacrificed  to 
the  hatred  of  the  soldiery  and  of  the  priests.  The  suc- 
cessor to  the  throne  commonly  put  to  death  all  his 
brothers,  in  fear  of  their  rivalry,  and  the  people  looked 
with  indifference  on  the  murder  of  a  hated  Sultan  or  the 
deposition  of  a  weak  one.  In  1571  the  Turks,  indeed, 
conquered  Cyprus  from  the  Venetians,  but  the  same 
year  brought  a  great  disaster.  At  Lepanto  (the  ancient 
Naupactus,  on  the  Gulf  of  Corinth),  a  battle  was  fought 
between  the  Ottoman  navy  and  the  combined  fleets 
of  the  Christian  States  on  the  Mediterranean.  Don 
John  of  Austria  headed  the  Christian  squadrons,  and  the 
result  was  the  destruction  of  the  Turkish  fleet,  to  the 
number  of  250  vessels  of  war.  In  this  battle  the  great 
Spanish  writer,  Cervantes,  author  of  "Don  Quixote," 
fought  bravely,  and  received  three  wounds,  one  of  which 
disabled  his  left  arm  for  life. 

Switzerland  had  gained  independence  in  the  Four- 
teenth Century,  and  vindicated  it  in  the  Fifteenth  with 
triumphant  success  against  the  arms  of  Austria  and 
Charles  the  Bold  of  Burgundy.  In  1499,  after  a  severe 
struggle  and  desperate  fighting  against  the  Emperor 
Maximilian  I  of  Austria,  Switzerland  was  definitely 
separated  from  the  German  Empire.  New  Cantons 
were  from  time  to  time  admitted,  and  in  1513  the  num- 
ber was  brought  up  to  thirteen,  at  which  it  remained 
till  1798. 


66  MODERN  EUROPE 

In  the  Sixteenth  Century  Savoy  became  an  impor- 
tant State  in  Europe.  In  the  Twelfth  Century  Amadeus 
III  became  Count  of  Savoy,  in  possession  of  Piedmont, 
and  in  1416  Amadeus  VIII  was  Duke  of  Savoy,  as  ruler 
of  Piedmont  and  of  territory  now  belonging  to  Switzer- 
land. Charles  III  of  Savoy  (reigned  1504-1553)  helped 
the  Emperor  Charles  V  against  Francis  I  of  France, 
and  was  deprived  in  the  end  of  all  his  territories  by 
the  French  King,  but  his  son,  Philibert  Emmanuel 
(1553-1580)  regained  them  by  the  treaty  of  Cateau- 
Cambresis,  in  1559.  Savoy  was  a  strongly  Catholic 
State,  and  waged  war  against  the  heretical  Waldenses, 
or  Vaudois,  who  have  been  named  in  the  account  of  the 
dawn  of  the  Reformation.  From  time  to  time  Savoy 
lost  territory  to  the  North,  on  the  Swiss  frontier,  and 
gained  new  dominion  to  the  South,  in  Italy.  Charles 
Emmanuel  I  (ruled  1580-1630)  lost  territory  in  the  war 
to  Henry  IV  of  France,  but  this  was  afterward  regained, 
and  during  the  Seventeenth  Century  Savoy  increased  in 
power  and  influence. 

Poland  became  powerful  under  Casimir  III  (reigned 
1333-1370),  surnamed  the  "Great,"  on  account  of  his 
wisdom  as  a  legislator  and  his  exertions  in  civilizing 
the  country.  He  fortified  the  towns  and  freed  them 
from  the  oppression  of  the  nobles,  maintained  peace 
with  his  neighbors,  and  greatly  increased  the  national 
prosperity.  The  dynasty  of  the  Jagellons,  of  Lithuania, 
began  with  Ladislas  II,  in  1296,  when  he  embraced 
Christianity,  married  the  Queen  of  Poland,  and  so  united 
the  crowns  of  Poland  and  Lithuania,  and  their  rule  con- 
tinued till  1572.  Under  this  line  of  Kings,  Poland  gained 
in  power  and  extent,  obtaining  territory  in  1447  from 
the  Teutonic  Knights  to  the  North,  and  annexing 
Livonia  in  1561.  In  1569  the  Lithuanian  nobles  were 


TURKS  AND  OTHER  NATIONS      67 

admitted  into  the  Polish  Diet,  and  Warsaw  was  made 
the  place  of  meeting.  As  in  other  countries  of  Europe, 
the  popular  representatives  of  towns  and  country  dis- 
tricts lost  their  influence  in  Poland  through  the  unpatri- 
otic selfishness  of  the  nobles,  and  guarantees  for  the 
liberty  of  the  people  were  done  away  with.  On  the 
extinction  of  the  Jagellon  dynasty,  in  1572,  Poland 
became  an  elective  monarchy,  and  although  for  a  time 
her  arms  were  victorious  against  foreign  attacks,  her 
influence  in  Europe  declined. 

A  change  occurred  in  Scandinavia  early  in  the 
Sixteenth  Century.  From  1513  to  1523,  Christian  II, 
called  "the  Cruel,"  from  his  gross  tyranny,  was  King  of 
Denmark  and  Norway,  and  had  become  King  of  Sweden 
also,  in  1520.  In  1523  a  great  change  came  for 
Sweden.  Gustavus  Vasa,  son  of  a  Swedish  noble,  after 
fighting  against  the  Danish  oppression  under'  Christian 
II,  had  become  a  fugitive,  working  as  a  common  laborer 
in  the  mines  of  Dalecarlia,  in  the  center  of  Sweden. 
He  raised  a  force  in  the  district,  and  headed  an  insurrec- 
tion of  the  Dalecarlians,  in  1521.  He  defeated  the 
Danes,  seized  Upsala,  and  had  such  success  that  in  1523 
he  was  elected  King  by  a  Provincial  Diet,  captured 
Stockholm,  embraced  Lutheranism,  and  was  crowned 
as  Gustavus  I  of  Sweden  in  1528.  The  Lutheran  reli- 
gion was  then  formally  established  in  Sweden,  and  Gus- 
tavus reigned  with  vigor  till  his  death,  in  1560,  the  King- 
dom having  been  declared  hereditary  in  his  line,  and 
Sweden  having  now  acquired  a  position  of  power  and 
influence  in  Europe. 


THE  RENAISSANCE 

Although  during  the  Middle  Ages  humanity  had  not 
lost  its  intellectual  life,  still  the  name  of  the  Renaissance 
has  been  adopted  to  designate  the  revival  of  art  and  let- 
ters in  the  Fifteenth  and  Sixteenth  Centuries.  The  world, 
in  fact,  seemed  to  be  born  again.  Princes  and  popes, 
nobles  and  monks,  knights  and  burghers,  seemed  all  seized 
with  ardent  thirst  for  knowledge  and  admiration  of  art. 
Scholars  argued,  poets  sang,  and  in  Germany  Ulrich 
exclaimed,  in  allusion  to  this  outburst  of  the  higher  curi- 
osity, "How  good  it  is  to  live!" 

The  sudden  awakening  was  caused  by  a  tempest  that 
outwardly  seemed  little  likely  to  benefit  intellectual  prog- 
ress. Constantinople,  which  still  guarded  the  precious 
treasures  of  antiquity,  had  fallen,  in  1453,  into  the  power 
of  rude  and  ignorant  conquerors.  The  Greeks  fled  from 
their  enslaved  country,  and  dispersed,  carrying  with  them 
the  books  they  no  longer  studied  themselves,  but  which 
were  joyfully  welcomed  in  France  and  Italy.  It  was  a 
world  refound.  The  rich  imagination,  the  brilliant  lan- 
guage of  the  Greek  writers,  masters  of  every  style,  sud- 
denly appeared,  dazzling  the  learned,  who  until  then  had 
exhausted  themselves  in  vain  efforts  to  find  perfection. 
Ancient  Greek  once  more  reconquered  the  West.  At  pre- 
cisely the  same  date,  Gutenberg  succeeded  in  completing 
his  invention  of  printing.  In  a  few  years  it  had  become 
universal,  and  printing  multiplied  the  works  of  the  ancient 
as  well  as  of  the  modern  authors. 

Alphonso  the  Magnanimous  (1416-1458)  had 
founded  an  academy  at  Naples,  and  in  Rome  Nicholas  V 

68 


THE  RENAISSANCE  69 

founded  the  Vatican  Library,  where  he  collected  five  thou- 
sand volumes.  In  Florence  Cosmo  de'  Medici  (1389- 
1464)  the  merchant  Pericles,  who  ruled  a  republic  not  less 
variable  than  the  Athenian  State,  surpassed  all  other 
Princes  by  the  enlightened  taste  with  which  he  encouraged 
letters  and  art.  His  grandson,  Lorenzo  de'  Medici  ( 1449- 
1492),  who  transformed  the  purely  moral  authority 
wielded  by  Cosmo  into  a  monarchical  power,  continued  his 
liberality  toward  the  learned  in  spite  of  this  changed  policy. 
He  created  an  academy,  and  admired  Plato  so  much  that 
he  revived  a  festival  which  his  disciples  had  formerly  cele- 
brated in  his  honor.  He  founded  the  library  that  still 
bears  his  name,  the  Medico-Laurentian  Library.  The 
lesser  Italian  Princes  had  their  court  poets,  philosophers 
and  artists;  for  instance  the  house  of  Este  at  Ferrara,  the 
Montefeltro  at  Urbino,  the  Gonzagas  at  Mantua,  the 
Sforza  at  Milan,  the  Benti-voglio  at  Bologna,  lastly, 
John  de'  Medici,  who  became  Pope  under  the  name  of  Leo 
X,  and  united  in  his  own  person  the  glory  of  all  these 
generous  protectors  of  science  and  art.  He  deserved, 
through  the  incomparable  greatness  with  which  he  pre- 
sided over  the  intellectual  movement,  to  leave  his  name 
to  a  Century  thus  highly  distinguished  by  its  fertility 
in  authors  and  artists. 

The  imitation  of  the  antique  furnished  the  forms  and 
rules  of  poetry,  but  inspiration  was  chiefly  derived  from 
the  chivalric  poems  of  France,  whereon  the  Middle  Ages 
had  lavished  all  the  imagination  of  feudal  and  Christian 
society.  After  some  attempts  at  epic  poetry  from  Luigi 
Pulci,  who  recited  the  "Morgante  Maggiore"  at  the  table 
of  Lorenzo  de'  Medici,  and  from  Boiardo,  who  wrote  the 
"Orlando  Innamorato,"  Ariosto  (1473-1500),  the  poet  of 
the  early  part  of  the  epoch,  appeared.  Taking  up  the 
legend  of  Roland,  already  disfigured  by  Boiardo  (1434- 


70  MODERN  EUROPE 

1494),  under  another  form,  Ario'Sto  composed  and  pub- 
lished his  great  work,  "Orlando  Furioso,"  where  his 
imagination  reveled  in  fantastic  palaces,  marvelous 
adventures,  golden  lances  and  winged  horses,  but  where 
he  sketched  profoundly  human  characters.  Inspired  by 
Homer,  Virgil,  and  Ovid,  he  borrowed  the  arts  of  descrip- 
tion and  word  painting  from  his  great  masters,  while  at 
the  same  time  he  retained  the  spirit  of  the  "Chansons  de 
Geste,"  and  animated  his  characters  with  Christian  senti- 
ments. His  poem  is  the  most  vigorous  expression  of  the 
society  of  that  epoch,  still  enthusiastic  for  chivalry  and 
religion  in  spite  of  a  curious  retrogression  toward  pagan 
idolatry.  These  characteristics  are  still  more  clearly  seen 
in  Tasso's  poem  (1544-1595),  "Jerusalem  Delivered." 
Following  the  plan  of  the  "Iliad,"  he  glorified  the  Cru- 
sades at  an  epoch  when  they  were  not  likely  to  recom- 
mence, and  blended  Christian  miracles  with  chivalric  leg- 
ends and  gallantries.  We  find  one  sign  of  the  new  times 
in  this  poem :  women  are  celebrated  under  the  names  of 
Armada,  Clorinda,  and  Hermione;  and  the  charm  of  the 
"Jerusalem  Delivered"  lies  in  the  tenderness  of  the  senti- 
ment, though  the  extravagance  of  its  conceits  almost  spoil 
it.  Tasso's  work  is  well  nigh  the  last  epic  poem,  for 
this  style,  which  appears  spontaneously  in  young  naive 
societies,  was  not  suited  to  the  rationalistic,  studious  spirit 
of  the  Sixteenth  Century. 

History  and  politics  were  more  suited  to  the  men  of 
the  Renaissance.  Machiavelli  (1469-1527),  a  disciple  of 
Livy,  educated  in  the  schools  of  war  and  diplomacy  of 
his  time,  joined  the  skill  of  the  ancients  to  the  penetra- 
tion of  the  moderns.  His  discourse  on  the  first  "Books 
of  Livy"  analyzes  the  causes  of  the  greatness  of  Rome. 
His  political  correspondence  displays,  together  with  saga- 
cious observations  of  human  conduct,  thorough  acquain- 


THE  RENAISSANCE  71 

tance  with  the  interests  of  States.  His  "History  of  Flor- 
ence" is  one  of  the  most  literary,  if  not  the  most  conscien- 
tious, models  of  the  art  of  narration.  Machiavellism  has 
always  existed,  but  it  owes  its  name  to  the  author  of  the 
"Prince."  He  forms  the  subject  of  a  sketch  in  the  volume 
devoted  to  "Great  Statesmen." 

Fighting  for  more  than  a  half  a  Century  in  Italy,  the 
French  were  dazzled  by  the  civilization  of  the  land  which 
they  invaded;  they  admired  the  cities  from  which  they 
exacted  ransom,  the  palaces  they  occupied  as  masters,  the 
magnificent  churches  which  they  alone  respected.  The 
manuscripts,  pictures  and  sculptures  excited  their  curios- 
ity and  envy,  even  more  than  the  rich  materials  and  ele- 
gant furniture.  Charles  VIII  and  Louis  XII  employed 
Italian  workmen.  Francis  I  surrounded  himself  with 
scholars  and  artists. 

Humanism  then  appeared  in  France  to  revive  the 
studies  that  had  become  fruitless  under  the  influence  of 
scholasticism.  Francis  I  encouraged  learning,  and  Danes, 
Postel,  Vatable,  Turnebe,  and  Bude  adorned  his  court. 
Bude  induced  Francis  I  to  create  the  College  of  France. 
Francis  I  wished  that  Hebrew,  Greek,  and  Latin  should 
have  special  chairs,  to  which  he  afterward  added  chairs 
of  science.  The  monarch  thus  encouraged  a  new  method 
of  instruction  by  the  side  of  scholastic  teaching;  a  fertile 
innovation,  giving  an  impulse  to  education,  which  was 
never  afterward  lost.  Francis  I  endeavored  to  attract  to 
his  new  college  the  most  famous  doctor  of  his  age,  Eras- 
mus, born  at  Rotterdam,  who  traveled  in  every  country, 
and  had  no  home  but  the  republic  of  letters.  Erasmus 
(1465-1536)  wrote  in  Latin,  which  he  handled  with  con- 
summate ease;  his  biting  satires  against  the  monks  and 
the  abuses  of  the  Church  rendered  him  unwittingly  one 
of  the  precursors  of  the  Reformation;  his  aim  was  merely 


73  MODERN  EUROPE 

the  diffusion  of  true  learning.  His  "Praise  of  Folly" 
gives  him  a  place  among  the  observers  of  humanity  and 
the  keenest  moralists,  but  his  greatest  work  was  perhaps 
his  edition  of  the  Greek  Testament. 

Spain  at  that  date  exercised  intellectual  as  well  as 
political  ascendancy.  Her  language,  perhaps  the  finest 
of  the  Romance  tongues,  had  been  formed  during  the 
Middle  Ages;  more  forcible  and  sonorous  than  Italian, 
it  derived  from  the  Arabs  strength  and  a  rich  vocabulary. 
From  the  Eleventh  and  Twelfth  Centuries  the  Spaniards 
had  their  "Chansons  de  Geste,"  "The  Poem  of  the  Cid." 
Poets  whose  names  are  now  lost,  sprang  up  in  Christian 
Spain,  writers  of  stirring  ballads,  chiefly  historical,  relat- 
ing in  short,  graceful  verse  the  exploits  and  gallantries  of 
the  knights.  This  literature  was  continued  by  a  succes- 
sion of  masterpieces  which  made  the  Spanish  literature  of 
that  date  well  'nigh  the  first  in  Europe.  The  cultured 
classes  imitated  the  Italian  poets,  and  even  borrowed 
their  meters.  Boscan  copied  Petrarch.  Garcilaso  de  la 
Vega,  even  while  following  Petrarch,  Bembo,  and  San- 
nazaro,  caught  their  full  grace  and  sweetness,  but  unhap- 
pily introduced  their  conceits  and  affectation  also. 

Castillejo  rebelled  against  the  too  frequent  imitation 
of  the  Italians,  and  rejected  a  pastoral  style,  which  he 
deemed  unworthy  of  a  warrior  race.  Hurtado  de  Men- 
doza  (1503-1575),  a  learned  ambassador,  poet,  novelist, 
and  historian,  initiated  in  Spain  the  realistic  novel,  by 
his  masterpiece,  the  first  part  of  "Lazarillo  de  Tormes." 

Fernando  de  Herrera  (1549-1623)  revealed  the  beau- 
ties of  the  classic  ode  to  Spain,  and  celebrated  the  exploits 
of  a  Christian  hero,  Don  Juan  of  Austria.  Fr.  Luis  Ponce 
de  Leon  (1528-1591)  was  the  first  of  the  great  Spanish 
mystic  writers.  In  fact,  at  this  time  the  destruction  of 
religious  unity  rekindled  a  more  fervent  faith  in  all  Catho- 


THE  RENAISSANCE  73 

lies,  and  Spain  produced  Ignatius  Loyola,  the  founder  of 
the  Jesuit  order,  and  Saint  Theresa,  whose  prose  writings 
are  admirable,  and  whose  poems  remind  us  of  Blake  in 
their  dark  doggerel  gemmed  with  passages  of  inimitable 
beauty. 

The  writings  of  chivalry  had  not  yet  ended.  The 
"Amadis  de  Gaul,"  translated  from  old  Celtic  legends  by 
Montalvo,  obtained  great  success  in  Spain,  and  pastoral 
novels  again  became  fashionable  with  Jorge  de  Monte- 
mayor.  But  these,  particularly  the  romances  of  chivalry, 
soon  encountered  a  terrible  adversary  in  the  famous  Cer- 
vantes (1547-1616).  This  valiant  soldier,  who  lost  his 
left  hand  in  the  battle  of  Lepanto,  and  during  his  whole 
life  was  subject  to  the  pressure  of  narrow  means,  was 
indignant  with  his  countrymen  for  their  liking  for  these 
romances,  and  their  false  extravagances.  He  found  them 
an  admirable  subject  for  parody,  and  in  his  marvelous 
"History  of  Don  Quixote  de  la  Mancha,"  he  made  a  hero 
of  a  poor  hidalgo,  whose  head  had  been  turned  by  these 
writings.  If  the  work  of  Cervantes  had  been  merely  a 
literary  satire  it  would  probably  have  been  forgotten  in 
spite  of  its  merits;  but  Cervantes,  to  a  biting  wit,  a  vivid 
imagination  and  a  rare  talent  for  depicting  landscapes  and 
characters,  added  a  depth  of  observation  that  has  rend- 
ered his  novel  a  mirror  of  humanity.  Blended  with  curi- 
ous episodes,  the  sole  blot  on  the  work,  the  burlesque, 
amusing  adventures  of  Don  Quixote  and  his  companion, 
Sancho  Panza,  Cervantes  introduced  wise  maxims,  shrewd 
remarks  upon  the  passions  and  vices  not  only  of  the  soci- 
ety of  his  times,  but  of  men  of  all  ages.  Walter  Scott  said 
that  his  book  was  one  of  the  master  works  of  the  human 
mind. 

Cervantes  had  endeavored  to  give  the  Spanish  theater 
the  form  that  his  knowledge  and  intelligence  pointed  out 


74  MODERN  EUROPE 

as  the  ideal.  But  he  ceased  writing  for  the  stage  when 
he  saw  the  wonderful  success  achieved  by  Lope  de  Vega 
(1562-1635).  Gifted  with  marvelous  imagination  and 
inexhaustible  fertility  (for  it  is  said  that  he  wrote  fifteen 
hundred  plays),  Lope  de  Vega,  who  was  soldier,  priest, 
and  monk,  added  historical  and  religious  dramas  to  come- 
dies of  intrigues  called  "Cloak  and  Sword."  Although 
composed  of  a  series  of  improbable  adventures,  these  com- 
edies attracted  the  crowd  by  the  clearness  of  the  plot,  and 
the  vivacious  and  natural  dialogue.  With  regard  to  his- 
torical tragedies,  Lope  de  Vega  never  attempted  to  bind 
himself  by  imitating  the  ancients.  He  introduced  history 
into  his  plays,  without  troubling  himself  about  unity  of 
time  or  place.  His  school  even  in  the  Sixteenth  Century 
added  so  much  luster  to  Spanish  literature  that  it  strongly 
influenced  the  literature  of  other  countries,  particularly 
of  France. 

Portugal  has  only  one  great  name,  that  of  Camoens 
(1525-1579),  who  in  "Os  Lusiadas"  celebrated  the  discov- 
eries and  exploits  of  the  Portuguese.  His  work  is  at  the 
same  time  a  magnificent  epic  and  a  history.  His  great 
epic  poem,  the  "Lusiad,"  deals  with  Vasco  da  Gama's 
expedition  to  India — a  narrative  of  Portuguese  history 
being  mingled  with  splendid  poetic  descriptions,  and 
Christianity  being  interwoven  with  mythological  fables. 
The  "Lusiad"  is  an  Iliad  to  the  Portuguese  Nation,  whose 
lower  classes  learn  and  sing  its  stanzas.  The  poem  is 
rich  in  patriotic  feeling,  which  endears  it  to  the  singer's 
countrymen ;  foreign  critics  place  it  high  among  epics  of 
the  lower  order. 

In  England  mental  energy  was  kindled  by  the  same 
rays  that  vivified  Spain,  France,  and  Italy.  England 
from  the  earliest  days  of  modern  times  had  become  a  great 
power.  The  Nation  had  been  formed  from  mingled  Celtic, 


THE  RENAISSANCE  75 

Saxon,  Danish,  and  Norman  elements;  the  language, 
which  after  the  Norman  conquest  had  been  strongly 
impregnated  with  old  French  idioms,  and  consequently 
with  Latin  words,  was  of  Germanic  origin.  The  litera- 
ture is  marked  by  a  greater  variety  and  breadth,  as  well  as 
beauty  of  style,  than  that  of  any  other  Teutonic  tongue. 
In  the  Fourteenth  Century  appeared  a  great  poet,  Chaucer, 
who  has  never  been  excelled  as  a  bright  and  cheerful 
painter  in  verse  of  the  life  of  his  contemporaries.  The 
Classical  and  Pagan  Renaissance  of  the  Sixteenth  Cen- 
tury, coinciding  with  the  Reformation  which  completed 
the  individuality  of  the  English  character,  and  also  with 
the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  completed  the  conditions  most 
favorable  to  the  development  of  literature.  From  the 
Sixteenth  Century  English  literature  has  shone  with 
great  brilliancy.  Spenser  (1552-1559)  in  his  "Faerie 
Queen,"  made  even  epic  allegory  beautiful,  and  for  splen- 
did, indeed  almost  excessive,  richness  of  imagery  has  few 
rivals. 

In  the  theater,  after  precursors  like  John  Lyly  and 
Marlowe — who  at  any  other  epoch  would  have  been 
supreme — Shakespeare  (1564-1616)  appeared,  the  great- 
est dramatic  genius  of  England,  indeed,  it  is  admitted,  of 
the  world.  The  son  of  a  burgess  of  Stratford,  he  became 
both  actor  and  author,  comedian  and  manager  of  the  the- 
ater; under  him  the  drama  regained,  in  the  Sixteenth 
Century,  the  power  and  inspiration  of  the  great  poets  of 
Greece,  added  to  the  vigor  and  free  imagination  of  the 
poets  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Cosmopolitan  and  yet  deeply 
patriotic,  the  admirer  of  modern  and  ancient  Italy,  but 
still  more  the  admirer  of  his  own  country,  Shakespeare  was 
alternately  Italian  in  Romeo  and  Juliet  and  in  Othello. 
Roman  in  Coriolanus  and  Caesar,  but  above  all  English 
in  his  dramas  founded  on  episodes  in  the  national  history 


76  MODERN  EUROPE 

like  Henry  V,  Richard  III,  and  Henry  VIII,  or  Scotch 
legends  like  Macbeth.  He  was  a  genius  who  revived  the 
past  ages,  clothing  them  with  life,  and  was  equally  at 
home  in  violent  scenes  from  the  Italy  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
in  the  horrors  of  the  War  of  the  Roses,  in  semi-barbarous 
times,  in  depicting  his  contemporaries,  or  in  weaving  into 
his  drama  the  delicate  creations,  the  fairy  glamour  of 
poetic  folk-lore.  With  a  genius  that  breaks  through  all 
obstacles,  he  places  an  entire  population  upon  the  stage, 
carries  history  into  the  theater,  and  although  he  gives  full 
play  to  his  imagination,  he  is  yet  more  true  to  history 
than  many  historians.  Nothing  can  equal  the  movement 
and  warmth  of  these  complicated  dramas,  which  unravel 
themselves  now  in  a  palace,  now  in  a  street,  now  on  a  bat- 
tlefield, placing  on  the  stage  and  in  close  proximity  men 
of  all  ranks,  and  replacing  the  old  chorus  by  a  crowd. 
Shakespeare  thus  passes  to  every  key,  grave  and  gay,  often 
jocular,  sometimes  coarse.  He  descends  into  the  common 
jests  of  the  populace  with  as  much  facility  as  he  rises  to 
the  sublime,  and  of  his  best  pieces  the  world  will  never 
tire. 

But  he  has  merited  the  admiration  of  posterity  chiefly 
through  his  knowledge  and  description  of  the  passions  of 
humanity.  The  characters  of  his  personages  are  even 
more  true  from  a  human  than  from  an  historical  point  of 
view.  And,  when  he  has  had  no  model  to  draw  from,  he 
has  created  types  of  incontestable  veracity.  Macbeth, 
and  his  wife,  Lady  Macbeth,  the  types  of  criminal  ambi- 
tion; Othello,  of  jealousy;  Desdemona,  the  gentle  victim 
of  the  noble  but  deluded  Moor;  Juliet,  the  graceful  incar- 
nation of  love;  and,  lastly,  Hamlet,  the  philosophical 
dreamer,  the  man  attacked  by  a  melancholia  unknown  to 
antiquity,  the  precurser  of  thousands  of  tormented  souls, 
possessed  by  the  strange  sadness  that  seems  peculiar  to 


THE  RENAISSANCE  77 

modern  times.  Shakespeare  had  little  knowledge  of  the 
ancients,  but  he  is  a  true  poet,  touched  with  the  imprint 
of  the  keen  sensibility,  the  humor,  and  the  weird  fancy 
which  are  characteristic  features  of  the  Northern  races. 
The  Greeks  and  Romans  admirably  described  the  sadness 
produced  by  misfortune,  but  they  would  not  have  under- 
stood a  vague  melancholy  and  discontent  with  life  in  the 
flower  of  youth  and  manhood. 

Great  as  were  his  contemporaries,  Ben  Jonson,  Mas- 
singer,  Fletcher,  Webster,  and  Ford,  England  never  pro- 
duced a  second  dramatic  poet  who  could  rank  with  Shakes- 
peare, and  at  that  time  her  literature  was  only  beginning 
to  develop;  though  it  afterward  excelled  in  various  other 
styles. 

The  age  that  produced  the  greatest  dramatist  pro- 
duced the  greatest  essayist.  Like  Shakespeare,  Michel 
de  Montaigne  (1533-1592)  was  not  appreciated  by  his 
contemporaries,  but  each  Century  has  seen  a  widening  of 
the  circle  of  his  admirers  and  they  include  the  acutest 
intellects  of  every  age.  To  be  amusingly  and  simply  self- 
ish is  ever  the  part  of  this  charmingly  egotistical  man. 
His  motto  was  Que  sais-jef  "What  do  I  know?"  and 
frankly  the  skeptic  declared  that  the  answer  was  nothing. 
Merely  to  live,  merely  to  muse  over  the  spectacle  of  the 
world,  simply  to  feel  even  if  the  thing  felt  be  agony,  and 
to  reflect  on  the  pain  and  on  how  it  may  be  best  borne — 
this  is  enough  for  Montaigne.  Bacon's  essays  appeared 
in  England  a  few  years  later  and  won  immediate  popu- 
larity for  their  worldly  wisdom.  Bacon's  philosophical 
works  belong  to  the  Seventeenth  Century  and  they  have 
been  discussed  in  the  volume  on  the  World's  Great  Phil- 
osophers. 

Aroused  by  the  great  geographical  discoveries  and 
the  needs  of  navigation,  the  curiosity  of  the  human  mind 


78  MODERN  EUROPE 

was  now  directed  to  the  observation  of  nature  and  the 
explanation  of  the  system  of  the  world.  Science  revived 
at  the  same  time  as  literature.  At  first  scientific  men,  like 
scholars,  only  devoted  themselves  to  translations  of  and 
commentaries  on  the  work  of  the  Greek  sages,  which, 
although  better  known  and  better  interpreted  than  for- 
merly, could  not,  like  the  works  of  the  poets,  historians, 
and  philosophers,  satisfy  the  avidity  of  their  readers,  who 
were  often  discouraged  by  the  small  results  obtained  by 
their  long  labor.  Meritorious  as  the  works  of  the  Greek 
mathematicians  and  astronomers  undoubtedly  were,  par- 
ticularly of  the  Alexandrian  school,  they  had  never  reached 
any  true  explanation  of  the  physical  system  of  the  uni- 
verse, or  of  the  movements  of  the  planets  and  the  stars. 
The  glory  of  seeking  and  finding  this  solution  belongs  to 
the  moderns.  In  literature  they  are  the  disciples  of  the 
ancients.  In  science  they  are  masters  and  creators.  Too 
much  honor  can  hardly  be  paid  to  those  men  who,  dispers- 
ing the  darkness  that  had  accumulated  through  the  errors 
of  the  ancients,  have  in  some  degree  replaced  the  world 
in  its  true  orbit,  and  made  the  earth  turn  round  the  sun 
instead  of  the  sun  round  the  earth. ' 

Already  some  astronomers  had,  like  Nicolas  de  Cusa, 
timidly  essayed  to  correct  the  errors  of  our  senses. 
Already  the  knowledge  of  the  sphericity  of  the  earth,  vic- 
toriously proved  by  the  discoveries  of  Christopher  Colum- 
bus, had  pointed  to  the  truth.  But  the  great  facts  of  the 
solar  system  were  first  perceived  by  an  obscure  Canon 
of  Frauenberg,  in  Prussia.  Copernicus  (1473-1543) 
born  at  Thorn,  in  Poland,  in  his  little  town  on  the  Vis- 
tula, profiting  by  the  knowledge  acquired  in  several  jour- 
neys to  Italy,  consecrated  his  entire  life  to  the  observa- 
tion of  the  stars  and  of  calculations  of  their  respective  posi- 
tions. It  was  not  until  the  end  of  his  career  that  he 


THE  RENAISSANCE  79 

decided  to  publish  a  book  on  the  ''Revolutions  of  the  Heav- 
enly Bodies,"  which  annihilated  all  the  systems  adopted, 
or  rather  imagined  until  then.  The  theory  of  Copernicus 
that  the  earth  and  the  planets  move  round  the  sun,  super- 
seded the  old  Ptolemaic  theory  that  the  earth  was  the 
center  of  the  universe,  and  that  the  sun,  stars,  and  planets 
moved  round  the  earth  as  center.  The  Copernican  theory 
is  the  foundation  of  modern  astronomy.  It  must,  how- 
ever, be  remembered  that  as  early  as  the  Third  Century 
before  Christ,  Aristarchus  of  Samos  had  discovered  not 
only  that  the  earth  moves,  which  was  known  to  Pytha- 
goras, but  that  it  moves  round  the  sun.  This  first  expla- 
nation of  the  solar  system  was  naturally  very  defective. 
Copernicus  made  many  mistakes — such  as  his  idea  that 
the  earth,  in  her  course  round  the  sun,  always  turned  the 
same  side  toward  it — but  still  he  had  at  least  glimpses  of 
the  truth  and  founded  a  new  and  correct  system  of  astron- 
omy, a  Century  before  the  invention  of  scientific  telescopes, 
by  force  of  unwearied  observation,  mental  independence, 
and  penetrative  power  of  intellect.  For  a  long  time  men 
refused  to  accept  his  discovery. 

Astronomy  made  still  further  progress  with  Tycho 
Brahe  (1546-1601)  a  Dane  who,  after  erecting  an  obser- 
vatory, Uranienborg,  i.  e.  the  City  of  the  Heavens,  on 
the  small  island  of  Hven,  three  leagues  from  Copenhagen, 
and  passing  twenty-five  years  there  in  profitable  obser- 
vations, was  at  last  forced  to  leave  it  and  placing  himself 
under  the  protection  of  the  Emperor  Rudolph  II,  settled 
himself  in  the  castle  of  Benatek,  near  Prague.  His  life 
work  chiefly  consisted  in  the  vast  array  of  facts  stored  up 
by  his  long  and  patient  investigations  for  the  use  of  those 
who  followed  after  him. 

The  progress  of  astronomical  science  in  the  Sixteenth 
Century  led  to  an  important  reform  in  the  calendar.  The 


So  MODERN  EUROPE 

Julian  calendar  was  based  on  the  tropical  year  (three 
hundred  and  sixty-five  days  and  a  quarter,  or  six  hours), 
but  there  was  a  difference  of  eleven  minutes  too  many  on 
the  exact  year,  which  accumulating  from  Century  to  Cen- 
tury produced  real  disorder  in  the  recurrence  of  the  yearly 
festivals.  In  1582  Pope  Gregory  XIII  (1502-1585), 
after  consulting  the  celebrated  astronomers  of  his  time, 
ordered  the  suppression  of  ten  days,  from  the  fourth  to 
the  fifteenth  of  October,  1582.  Still,  as  the  Julian  cal- 
endar, they  retained  one  extra  day  inserted  every  four 
years,  but  it  was  arranged  that  certain  leap  years  should 
be  suppressed  to  maintain  the  quasi-perpetual  equilibrium. 

The  progress  of  astronomy  had  been  greatly  aided  by 
the  advance  in  mathematics.  Tartiglia,  Cardan,  Ferrari, 
and  others  resumed  the  work  of  the  old  Greek  geometri- 
cians, and  continued  it  with  so  much  ardor  that  they  sent 
each  other  solemn  challenges  for  contests  of  figures,  as  the 
knights  did  for  their  combats  in  the  tilt  yard.  They 
invited  each  other  to  solve  problems  and  equations,  and 
the  learned  world  paid  great  attention  to  these  pacific 
rivalries,  which,  however,  were  not  always  without  bit- 
terness, for  the  hot  passions  of  the  Sixteenth  Century 
invaded  even  the  sanctuaries  of  science.  The  French 
mathematicians  rivaled  the  Italians,  and  through  their 
noble  emulations  the  science  of  geometry  was  built  up. 
Pierre  de  la  Ramee,  called  Ramus,  the  celebrated  philoso- 
pher, secured  a  solid  foundation  for  it  by  translating 
Euclid's  "Elements."  A  jurisconsult,  Viete  (1540-1603) 
created  algebraic  language.  Until  then  numerals  were 
always  used  for  operations,  the  unknown  and  its  quantities 
only  being  represented  by  abbreviations  and  signs.  Viete 
represented  all  quantities  by  letters.  He  thus  developed 
geometry  and  trigonometry. 

Medicine  made  a  decisive  step  with  Paracelsus  (1493- 


THE  RENAISSANCE  81 

1541 )  who  rejected  the  Greek  and  Arab  authors  to  devote 
himself  to  the  direct  observation  of  nature  and  a  search 
for  her  remedies.  Andreas  Vesalius  made  it  the  basis 
of  a  serious  study  of  anatomy  and  the  human  body.  Reli- 
gious respect  for  the  dead  had  been  carried  to  such  a 
point  that  dissection  of  corpses  had  not  been  allowed. 
Vesalius  (1514-1564),  physician  to  Charles  V  and  Philip 
II,  braved  this  prejudice,  and  from  that  time  the  healing 
science  began  to  develop.  Ambroise  Pare  (1517-1590), 
surgeon  to  Charles  IX  and  Henry  III,  deserves  to  be 
called  one  of  the  benefactors  of  humanity.  He  healed 
as  much  as  possible,  instead  of  always  amputating.  Yet 
medicine  and  surgery,  like  other  sciences,  were  still  in 
their  infancy. 

The  efforts  of  true  science  were  obstructed  in  the 
Fifteenth  and  Sixteenth  Centuries  by  the  obstinacy  of  the 
astrologers  and  sorcerers.  It  seems  as  though  the  chi- 
merical sciences  had  doubled  their  propaganda,  judging 
by  the  terrible  cruelty  used  for  their  suppression  by  the 
Inquisition  and  the  Princes.  Sorcerers  multiplied;  in 
vain  were  they  burnt  by  thousands,  for  in  a  few  years 
there  were  6,500  cases  of  sorcery  in  the  electorate  of 
Treves.  The  moral  epidemic  (for  it  was  really  that) 
spread  everywhere.  The  horrible  persecution  only 
increased  the  evil  which  it  was  intended  to  cure.  Besides, 
this  tendency  to  persecute  astrology  and  sorcery  was  a 
real  hindrance  to  true  science.  Learned  men  dared  not 
publish  all  their  theories,  and  more  than  one  great  student 
perished  a  victim  of  his  boldness  because  his  works  com- 
bated some  popular  errors.  Human  thought  had  not  yet 
attained  liberty,  and  even  the  Century  of  the  Reformation, 
far  from  being  a  Century  of  free  examination,  was  an  age 
of  persecution.  The  executions  of  the  printer,  Etienne 
Dolet,  and  of  the  learned  de  Berquin,  in  the  reign  of 

VOL.  2  —  6 


82  MODERN  EUROPE 

Francis  I,  and  of  a  number  of  others  in  all  Centuries,  the 
growing  severity  of  the  Inquisition  in  Spain,  proved  that 
in  this  society,  outwardly  so  pagan,  what  was  called  reli- 
gion still  ruled  the  State,  and  many  of  its  chiefs,  blinded 
by  ignorance,  never  realized  how  Christianity  was  dis- 
torted and  dishonored  by  these  cruelties. 

Art  had  escaped  from  the  fetters  that  in  the  Fifteenth 
and  Sixteenth  Centuries  hindered  the  flight  of  the  human 
mind.  The  true  Renaissance  was  the  revival  of  art. 
Architects,  painters,  and  sculptors  attained  a  perfection 
that  has  been  the  despair  of  later  ages,  although  it  has 
served  as  their  model.  There  is,  however,  not  much  rea- 
son for  astonishment,  for  in  reality  this  Renaissance  in 
Italy  dated  back  to  the  Twelfth  and  Thirteenth  Centuries. 
The  epoch  specially  designated  the  Renaissance  was  only 
the  epoch  of  its  maturity.  Italy  had  preceded  other  coun- 
tries in  the  development  of  wealth,  industry,  commerce, 
and  the  social  spirit  which  triumphed  over  civil  disunion. 
For  several  Centuries  it  had  been  elegant,  cruel,  polished, 
and  barbarous.  The  streets  of  its  cities  were  the  scene  of 
wars  and  assassinations,  mingled  with  joyous  festivals 
of  rare  magnificence.  Its  petty  sovereigns,  while  encour- 
aging the  poets,  employed  assassins;  the  admiration  of 
the  antique  was  joined  to  a  reckless,  ferocious  disposition; 
religious  observances  followed  or  preceded  grave  crimes. 
Under  an  outer  dress  of  exquisite  refinement,  in  halls 
peopled  with  Greek  and  Roman  statues  or  adorned  with 
valuable  paintings,  tragedies  took  place  which  rendered 
the  history  of  the  Italian  principalities  and  republics  full 
of  sinister  incidents.  But  this  state  of  civil  war,  of 
ambuscades,  leagues,  and  persecutions,  preserved  the  mind 
in  such  continual  activity  that  the  arts  profited  by  it. 
The  most  marked  feature  of  the  Renaissance  is  the  many- 
sided  culture,  the  versatility,  the  fullness  of  the  life  of  its 


THE  RENAISSANCE  83 

devotees.  The  power  of  the  scholar,  soldier,  poet,  theolo- 
gian, and  artist  in  more  than  one  art  were  often  united  in 
one  individual,  as  in  Leonardo  da  Vinci  (1452-1519) 
painter,  architect,  sculptor,  scientist,  engineer  and  musi- 
cian. 

The  real  school  of  the  Italian  artists  was  antiquity — 
at  least,  for  architecture  and  for  sculpture,  since  they  had 
no  examples  of  the  painting  of  the  ancients.  To  this  love 
of  antiquity  they  added  religious  inspiration,  if  not  gen- 
uine, still  forcible  enough  to  produce  masterpieces  of  art, 
for  the  churches  were  the  chief  works  of  the  architects. 
The  Pointed  or  Gothic  style  had  hardly  been  acclimatized 
in  Italy,  where,  in  architecture,  Byzantine  influence  had 
always  predominated.  At  the  end  of  the  Thirteenth  Cen- 
tury the  study  of  the  Roman  monuments,  the  ruins  of 
which  were  then  being  explored,  inspired  Arnolfo  di 
Lapo,  the  architect  of  the  cathedral  of  Florence.  He 
designed  the  cathedral  upon  the  plan  of  the  primitive  basil- 
icas. Brunelleschi  (1379-1446)  completed  Arnolfo's 
work  by  adding  the  cupola,  an  octagonal  arch  on  an  eight- 
sided  drum,  the  chief  work  of  the  Renaissance.  This 
dome,  which  afterward  inspired  Barmante  and  Michael 
Angelo,  was  358  feet  high.  From  that  time  the  Italians 
erected  buildings  in  imitation  of  the  antique,  and  archi- 
tecture merited  the  name  of  classic.  Rome  was  embel- 
lished with  palaces,  like  the  Massimi  Palace,  the  object 
of  study  and  admiration  of  all  artists,  with  its  Doric  ves- 
tibules and  courts;  and  the  Farnese  Palace.  But  the 
churches  were  the  chief  objects  of  emulation  to  the  archi- 
tects, Peruzzi,  Antonio  de  San  Gallo,  Vignoles,  and  Jac- 
ques de  la  Porte.  The  monument  which  best  represented 
the  new  art,  which  most  majestically  transmitted  profane 
traditions  and  blended  them  with  religious  requirements, 
is  the  immense  basilica  of  Saint  Peter's  at  Rome,  com- 


84  MODERN  EUROPE 

menced  under  Julius  II  from  the  plans  of  the  celebrated 
Barmante  (1444-1514),  continued  under  Leo  X  and  his 
successors,  and  only  completed  under  Sixtus  V.  A  series 
of  illustrious  artists  after  Bramante — Giocondo,  Julian  de 
San  Gallo,  Raphael,  Peruzzi,  Antonio  de  San  Gallo,  and 
lastly  Michael  Angelo,  labored  upon  this  gigantic  work, 
one  of  the  wonders  of  modern  times  by  its  mass,  by  its 
extraordinary  proportions  (for  it  could  contain  several 
cathedrals),  by  the  beauty  of  its  marbles,  stuccos,  and 
mosaics,  and  by  the  boldness  of  its  dome,  which  rises  to 
nearly  420  feet  above  the  pavement  of  the  church.  It  is 
a  triumph  of  science  and  art,  of  lines  and  curves,  the  per- 
fection of  magnificence  in  architecture,  and  the  most  won- 
derful monument  ever  raised  to  the  Christian  religion  with 
the  aid  of  pagan  tradition;  but  it  is  wanting  in  the  deeply 
religious  sentiment  that  pervades  the  Gothic  cathedrals. 
In  the  following  Century  Bernini  (1598-1680)  placed  a 
double  semicircular  colonnade  in  front  of  the  porch  of  Saint 
Peter's,  worthy  of  this  prodigious  temple.  St.  Paul's,  in 
London,  is  the  great  specimen  of  the  style  of  the  Renais- 
sance and  of  the  employment  of  the  dome  in  England; 
it  was  built  by  Sir  Christopher  Wren  ( 1675-1710). 

Sculpture  had  preceded  architecture  in  Italy,  an"i 
from  the  Thirteenth  Century  Nicholas  of  Pisa  had 
carved  the  pulpits  of  Siena  and  Pisa,  and  the  Tomb  of 
Saint  Dominic  at  Bologna.  He  was  followed  by 
Andrea  de  Pisa  and  Andrea  Orcagna.  In  the  Fifteenth 
Century  Lorenzo  Ghiberti  (1378-1455)  made  himself 
famous  by  the  bronze  gates  of  the  Baptistery  at  Flor- 
ence, to  which  he  devoted  forty  years'  labor.  Dona- 
tello,  Mino  de  Fiesola,  Lucadella  Robbia,  and  Sanso- 
vino  ornamented  the  churches  with  numerous  statues. 
Lastly,  Michael  Angelo  (1475-1564)  appeared,  the  uni- 
versal artist,  who,  whilst  yet  quite  young,  opened  his 


THE  RENAISSANCE  85 

career  by  sculpture.  He  adorned  the  mausoleum  of 
Lorenzo  de'  Medici  with  magnificent  statues  of  "Dawn," 
"Twilight,"  and  "Night,"  and  decorated  the  churches 
of  Rome  with  his  masterpieces.  Torreggiano  merited 
the  rank  of  Michael  Angelo's  rival.  Benvenuto  Cellini 
(1500-1570) — jeweler,  engraver,  goldsmith,  chaser, 
sculptor,  and  artist — has  left  some  sculptures  at  Flor- 
ence, but  worked  chiefly  at  Fontainebleau.  The  "Per- 
seus" ornaments  the  Loggia  de  Lanzi  at  Florence. 

The  Byzantine  painters,  like  the  ancient  Egyptians, 
had  failed  through  conventionality  and  religious  restric- 
tions. Yet  from  the  Thirteenth  Century  the  progress 
of  study  in  Italy  and  the  mental  ardor  awakened  in  the 
West,  placed  Cimabue  (1240-1302)  in  the  way  of  true 
art,  which  emancipated  itself  under  Giotto  (1276-1337), 
in  the  Fourteenth  Century.  This  little  shepherd,  whom 
Cimabue  had  noticed  drawing  his  sheep  on  the  sand, 
and  who  became  painter,  sculptor,  architect,  engineer, 
mosaic-worker,  etc.,  really  founded  the  Italian  school. 
He  observed  nature,  studied  foreshortening  and  per- 
spective, and  gave  his  figures  both  life  and  expression. 
Painting  was  at  this  time  treated  in  water  colors,  but, 
although  its  materials  were  imperfect,  it  made  great 
progress.  The  Italian  love  of  fresco  decorations  for 
churches  and  palaces  gave  birth  to  a  great  number  of 
artists,  and  the  walls  of  the  civil  or  religious  edifices 
were  covered  with  vast  pictures  which  time  has,  unfor- 
tunately, effaced.  Andrea  Orcagna  (1329-1368)  painted 
a  grand  fresco  of  "Hell"  in  Santa  Maria  Novella,  of 
Florence,  and  an  eccentric  "Last  Judgment,"  inspired 
by  Dante,  for  the  Campo  Santo,  at  Pisa.  Fra  Gio- 
vanno,  surnamed  Fra  Angelico,  was  the  most  devo- 
tional of  painters.  Michael  Angelo  observed  that  "the 
good  monk  must  have  visited  Paradise,  and  obtained 


86  MODERN  EUROPE 

permission  to  paint  his  models  from  there."  Masaccio 
(1401-1443),  by  his  fresco  and  pictures,  was  one  of  the 
first  restorers  of  painting.  An  old  man's  head,  painted 
on  a  canvas,  and  now  preserved  in  the  Museum  of  Flor- 
ence, is  a  masterpiece  of  drawing  and  observation.  The 
Florentine  school  was  founded. 

Religious  feeling,  which  is  so  deeply  imprinted  on 
the  works  of  the  earliest  Italian  painters  who  lived 
almost  in  the  Middle  Ages,  was  still  more  fervent  in  the 
Northern  countries,  particularly  in  Flanders,  where  the 
Corporation  of  Artists,  formed  in  imitation  of  the 
Drapers'  Guilds,  worked  with  the  ambitious  desire  to 
illuminate  the  churches  like  religious  manuscripts.  The 
wealth  of  the  Flemish  cities  was  not  only  displayed  in 
the  growing  luxury  of  the  houses  belonging  to  the 
manufacturing  burghers,  but  also  in  the  Guildhalls  and 
in  the  ornamentation  of  oratories  and  altars.  The 
Dukes  of  Burgundy  encouraged  the  first  efforts  of  art, 
and  an  illustrated  Bible,  by  Jehan  of  Bruges,  who 
became  famous  toward  1372,  is  preserved  in  the  Museum 
of  The  Hague.  This  artist,  the  first  Flemish  painter, 
was  employed  by  the  Duke  of  Anjou,  brother  of  Charles 
V,  to  design  the  cartoons  for  the  famous  tapestries  of 
the  Apocalypse,  which  are  preserved — or,  at  least,  some 
portion  of  them,  in  the  Cathedral  of  Angers.  In  a  short 
time  nearly  every  town  produced  some  artists,  and  the 
Renaissance  commenced  amongst  the  fogs  of  Flanders 
at  the  same  time  as  under  the  beautiful  Italian  sun.  In 
Flanders,  the  brothers  Van  Eyck,  by  the  invention  of 
oil  colors  and  varnish,  gave  to  painters  the  medium  by 
which  their  compositions  could  be  preserved  practically 
forever.  By  this  invention  (discovered  about  1410)  Jan 
Van  Eyck  rendered  to  art  the  same  service  that  Guten- 
berg rendered  to  literature  by  his  discovery  of  printing. 


THE  RENAISSANCE  87 

Toward  the  middle  of  the  Fifteenth  Century  an  Italian, 
Antonello  of  Messina  (1414-1493),  came  to  Flanders, 
was  initiated  into  the  new  method  of  painting,  and  car- 
ried it  into  his  own  country,  where  the  artists  gladly 
adopted  it.  Painting  in  oil  was  discovered  at  a  favor- 
able moment,  when  the  sudden  impetus  given  to  the 
studies  of  ancient  art  and  literature  aroused  and  excited 
the  enthusiasm  of  the  artists.  The  Renaissance  of 
Painting  was  the  result  of  the  Renaissance  of  Letters. 
Fascinated  by  Dante  and  Petrarch,  who  had  aided  them 
to  understand  Homer,  Virgil,  and  Horace,  the  painters 
evoked  and  presented  in  immortal  pictures  the  immortal 
descriptions  of  the  ancient  and  modern  authors. 

But  although  mythology  and  history  greatly  influ- 
enced the  work  of  the  Italian  masters,  the  Christian 
religion  had  a  yet  larger  share  in  its  development. 
From  this  point  of  view,  the  Italian  painters  are  the 
followers  of  the  sculptors  in  wood  and  the  illuminators. 
Dramatic  and  touching  histories  from  the  Bible,  the 
lives  of  the  patriarchs  and  prophets,  the  Gospel  parables, 
the  impressive  incidents  of  the  Passion,  legends  of  saints 
and  martyrs,  mysterious  ecstacies  of  the  faithful,  all 
furnished  subjects,  which,  with  infinite  variety  in  the 
combination  of  the  natural  and  the  supernatural,  of 
heaven  and  earth,  of  men  and  angels,  never  seemed  to 
have  wearied  admirers,  in  spite  of  their  perpetual  repe- 
tition. The  artists  transferred  the  adorations,  prayers, 
and  aspirations  of  the  Christian  world  to  the  walls  of 
their  churches,  or  the  pages  of  their  illuminated  manu- 
scripts. But  this  does  not  imply  that  all  these  artists 
were  imbued  with  the  naive,  ardent  faith  of  the  masons 
who  built  the  cathedrals,  the  sculptors  who  ornamented 
their  walls,  and  the  artists  who  decorated  the  Bibles. 
What  we  know  of  the  luxurious  life,  corruption,  and 


88  MODERN  EUROPE 

skepticism  of  the  Sixteenth  Century  removes  all  the  illu- 
sions on  that  head,  and  we  can  hardly  suppose  that  the 
artists  who  surrounded  Julian  II  and  Leo  X  were  bet- 
ter Christians  than  the  warrior  Pope  or  his  epicurean 
successor,  whose  elegant  but  dissolute  court  would  have 
drawn  upon  him  the  anathemas  of  the  Fathers  of  the 
Church.  This  state  of  society  explains  the  curious 
fashion  in  which  some  of  the  Italian  painters  have  often 
travestied,  rather  than  idealized,  Christian  subjects. 
They  treated  them  in  the  style  of  Greek  art,  using  them 
only  as  a  pretext  for  representing  the  human  body  in 
every  posture,  and  for  thus  displaying  their  anatomical 
knowledge.  As  a  rule,  they  have  taken  their  subject 
from  religion,  their  inspiration  from  antiquity;  they 
have  painted  Christian  figures  like  heathen  Deities. 

Masaccio  (1401-1429),  in  the  Fifteenth  Century, 
founded  the  first  school  of  painting  at  Florence,  and 
its  renown  increased  steadily  until  the  end  of  the  Six- 
teenth Century.  Pietro  Vanucci  (1446-1524),  called 
Perugino,  gave  a  particularly  graceful  expression,  a 
vivid  coloring,  and  a  golden  tone  to  his  religious  pic- 
tures. He  was  worthy  to  be  Raphael's  master.  Near 
Florence,  at  the  Castle  da  Vinci,  in  1452,  Leonardo  was 
born.  Like  Michael  Angelo,  he  was  at  the  same  time 
sculptor,  painter,  and  architect,  in  addition  to  his  great 
powers  as  a  mechanic  and  engineer.  Brought  into 
France  to  be  the  ornament  of  the  brilliant  court  of 
Francis  I,  his  pictures  are  not  numerous,  for  Leonardo 
allowed  himself  to  be  fascinated  too  much  by  scientific, 
to  the  detriment  of  artistic  efforts,  and  some  of  his 
finest  efforts,  such  as  the  "Last  Supper,"  a  fresco  in  an 
old  convent  at  Milan,  quickly  perished.  He  died  at 
Amboise,  in  1519.  Leonardo,  the  first  of  the  great 
masters,  inspired  by  the  monk  Bartolommeo  della  Porta 


THE  RENAISSANCE  89 

(1475-1517),  known  by  the  simple  name  of  Frate, 
beautified  his  figures  of  saints  with  an  elevated  expres- 
sion and  a  fine  tone  of  color.  Andrea  del  Sarto  (1486- 
I53I)  was  distinguished  by  the  purity  of  his  drawing, 
the  unity  of  his  compositions,  and  the  grace  of  the  atti- 
tudes in  which  he  placed  his  religious  or  profane  person- 
ages. Florence  produced  Giorgio  Vasari  (1511-1574), 
less  known  by  his  paintings  than  by  his  histories  of  the 
painters. 

Although  a  native  of  Tuscany,  Michael  Angelo 
Bounarrotti  (1475-1564)  founded  the  school  of  Rome. 
For  nearly  a  Century  Michael  Angelo  lived  and  worked, 
the  glory  of  every  art,  foremost  in  sculpture  as  well  as 
in  painting  and  architecture.  Disdaining  narrow 
frames,  he  delighted  in  vast  surfaces,  which  he  covered 
with  grand  compositions,  reproducing  on  the  ceiling  of 
the  Sistine  Chapel  the  Creation  of  the  World,  and 
Scripture  History,  interpreting  scenes  from  the  Bible, 
and  making  them  live  again  before  our  eyes  with  a 
vigor  that  equaled  the  descriptions  of  Moses.  Thor- 
oughly master  of  anatomy,  knowing  every  movement 
of  the  body,  and  how  to  vary  the  attitudes,  exhausting 
all  the  resources  and  mechanism  of  the  art  of  drawing, 
Michael  Angelo  was  not  afraid  of  handling  even  the 
subjects  which  had  inspired  Dante's  genius,  and  he 
painted  the  "Last  Judgment,"  a  fresco  which  filled  the 
whole  wall  of  the  Sistine  Chapel,  facing  the  entrance. 
A  colossal  composition,  where  300  personages  are  rep- 
resented; a  poem  in  color,  cleverly  arranged;  a  skill- 
ful combination  of  many  scenes,  harmoniously  grouped 
— this  unique  fresco  compels  admiration  by  the  eleva- 
tion of  the  subject,  by  the  life  that  illumines  the  bodies 
of  the  elect  and  torments  the  condemned,  by  the  con- 
trast between  the  terrestrial  and  celestial  groups. 


90  MODERN  EUROPE 

Michael  Angelo  shut  himself  into  the  Sistine  Chapel  for 
nine  years,  working  with  enthusiasm,  and  no  one  else 
has  attained  such  extraordinary  power  or  such  aston- 
ishing majesty. 

Shorter,  yet  more  productive  in  proportion  to  its 
duration,  the  career  of  Raphael  Sanzio  (1483-1520) 
marked  the  highest  point  of  the  Christian  yet  pagan 
art  of  the  Renaissance.  In  his  frescoes  and  pictures, 
his  portraits  (Julius  II,  Leo  X,  and  the  Fornarina),  and 
his  Holy  Families,  Raphael,  without  apparent  effort, 
attained  perfection  by  his  genius  for  composition, 
drawing,  and  painting.  We  admire  the  calm  effect 
produced  by  a  skill  certain  of  its  own  powers,  making 
no  effort  to  express  its  thoughts,  pious  or  secular, 
observing  yet  idealizing  nature,  and  satisfied,  when  it 
had  succeeded,  in  representing  upon  canvas  the  images 
by  which  it  wished  to  please  and  touch  the  spectators. 
Raphael's  genius  was  essentially  Greek.  This  not  only 
because  he  made  great  use  of  mythology  and  history 
in  his  works,  but  chiefly  because  he  had  caught  anew 
the  serenity  and  grace  of  the  old  ideals.  The  principal 
pictures  by  Raphael  can  be  admired  in  museums,  but 
in  the  Vatican  is  the  Loggia,  the  external  gallery  of  one 
of  the  palace  courts.  In  the  ceiling  of  each  of  the  tri- 
foriums  of  these  galleries  Raphael  has  painted  four 
pictures,  and  thus  obtained  a  series  of  fifty-two  subjects, 
comprising  the  principal  scenes  of  sacred  history — a 
really  grand  work,  in  which  the  master  employed  his 
pupils'  services,  chiefly  those  of  Giulio  Romano  (1492- 
1546).  In  the  same  palace  Raphael  painted  the 
chambers — that  is,  four  large  halls — where  he  arranged 
his  vast  compositions :  The  "Dispute  of  the  Holy  Sac- 
rament" (also  called  "Theology"),  and  the  "School  of 
Athens"  (or  "Philosophy"),  the  "Parnassus"  and  "Jur- 


THE  RENAISSANCE  91 

ispnrdence,"  the  history  of  Heliodorus  stabbed  on  the 
threshold  of  the  temple  of  Jerusalem,  the  "Deliverance 
of  Saint  Peter,"  the  "Pope  Saint  Leo  Stopping  the 
Advance  of  Attila,"  and  the  vast  scenes  wherein 
Raphael  glorified  Constantine,  the  protector  of  the 
Church.  In  these  large  compositions  the  arrangement 
is  majestic  and  noble,  the  groups  harmonize,  the  draw- 
ing is  free,  vigorous,  correct,  and  elegant,  the  figures 
are  graceful  without  affectation,  and  the  whole  picture 
is  full  of  delicate  sentiments  which  produce  an  undying 
charm.  But  the  artist  surpasses  himself  in  the  "Trans- 
figuration," a  picture  which  was  exhibited  at  the  head 
of  the  bed  on  which  Raphael  lay  after  death;  it  was  car- 
ried in  his  funeral  procession.  Raphael,  in  spite  of  the 
eminent  artists  that  have  succeeded  him,  has  remained 
incontestably  the  inimitable  model  and  the  educator  of 
the  painters  who  followed  him. 

Michael  Angelo  and  Raphael  had  carried  the  secrets 
of  the  Florentine  school  to  Rome,  and  had  created  the 
Roman  school.  But  Italian  genius  for  art  is  so  pre- 
dominant that  masters  were  found  in  most  of  the  Italian 
cities.  In  the  north,  where  Leonardo',  who  inhabited 
Milan  for  a  long  time,  had  also  introduced  Florentine 
methods,  the  so-called  Lombardy  School  had  boasted 
even  before  Leonardo's  appearance  of  Andrea  Mantegna 
of  Padua,  and  Bernardino  Luini.  Then  alone,  without 
seeing  either  Florence  or  Rome,  and  without  any  other 
inspiration  than  a  single  picture  by  Raphael  (the  "Saint 
Cecilia"),  but  which  he  felt  awakened  his  genius, 
Antonio  Allegri,  called  Correggio  (1494-1534),  almost 
rivaled  the  great  masters.  At  Parma  he  painted  the 
"Ascension"  which  decorates  the  dome  of  the  church  of 
San  Giovanni,  and  the  "Assumption"  painted  on  the 
Doumo  of  Parma.  Correggio  was  not  only  elegant 


92  MODERN  EUROPE 

and  graceful,  his  painting  is  distinguished  by  a  softness 
and  suavity  which  none  of  his  pupils  have  been  able  to 
equal.  Caravaggio  (1569-1609),  an  original  painter, 
who  only  studied  his  own  works  and  followed  his  own 
ideas,  uncultivated,  illiterate,  disdaining  the  antique, 
affecting  to  despise  Raphael  and  Correggio,  recognized 
but  one  master,  nature.  But  he  only  represented  the 
trivial,  common  side  of  nature,  out  of  harmony  with  his 
refined  epoch,  though  full  of  energy  and  truth. 

The  clear  sky  of  Venice  reflected  in  the  blue  waters 
of  the  Adriatic  seems  to  have  given  the  painters  of  that 
city  something  of  its  color  and  luster.  The  Venetians  are 
masters  of  color,  and  their  artists  lavished  the  most  bril- 
liant tints  upon  their  pictures.  The  Bellini,  two  brothers, 
commenced  that  famous  Venetian  school  afterward  so 
seductive  and  so  fertile.  Giorgio  Barbarelli  ( 1439-1502), 
who  died  very  young,  decorated  the  Palaces  of  the  Doges 
at  Venice  with  his  frescoes,  remarkable  for  their  warm 
tones.  He  left  very  few  pictures,  for  which  the  Euro- 
pean museums  eagerly  compete.  Giorgio  or  Giorgione 
was  Titian's  contemporary.  Titian  (1483-1520),  like 
Michael  Angelo,  lived  nearly  a  Century  and  occupied  this 
long  career  with  a  quantity  of  works,  decorating  the  Vene- 
tian churches  and  palaces,  composing  religious  and  secu- 
lar pictures  for  Princes  and  for  wealthy  citizens,  scarcely 
able,  in  spite  of  the  great  facility  with  which  he  worked, 
to  satisfy  his  crowd  of  customers  of  bishops  and  Kings, 
and  it  is  said  that  the  most  illustrious  of  them,  the  Emperor 
Charles  V,  condescended  to  pick  up  the  great  artist's  brush 
when  he  dropped  it  one  day  in  the  royal  presence.  With 
the  greatest  freedom  he  passed  from  sacred  to  heathen 
subjects,  from  saints  to  mythological  divinities,  from  Holy 
Families  to  Venus  and  Adonis,  giving  them  all  life  with 
his  magic  brush,  even  to  the  coldest  allegories  or  the  most 


THE  RENAISSANCE  93 

untruthful  apotheoses.  Art  with  him  was  completely 
emancipated,  and  in  religious  subjects  he  was  even  less 
scrupulous  than  the  other  painters  of  the  Renaissance. 
Titian  allowed  himself  to  be  led  away  by  his  imagination, 
his  tastes,  his  caprices.  But  he  portrayed  his  most  capri- 
cious ideas  in  such  glowing  colors,  his  painting  is  of  such 
brilliant  tone,  that  it  is  still  dazzling  after  the  lapse  of  sev- 
eral Centuries. 

Titian,  who  was  jealous  in  spite  of  his  glory,  had  dis- 
missed one  of  his  pupils  from  his  studio.  This  was  the 
son  of  a  dyer,  who  rendered  the  name  of  his  trade  famous 
by  becoming  Tintoretto  (1518-1594).  This  artist 
endeavored  to  be  original  instead  of  merely  a  copyist,  and 
to  avoid  one  of  Titian's  defects,  for  the  latter  was  so  much 
preoccupied  with  his  color  that  he  neglected  his  drawing, 
which  Tintoretto  studied  under  Michael  Angelo.  His  rep- 
utation was  so  great  that  he  was  invited  to  fill  the  churches 
and  palaces  of  Venice  with  his  work.  He  decorated  the 
ceiling  of  the  Great  Council  Hall,  in  the  Ducal  Palace, 
with  a  vast  composition  sixty-four  feet  long  by  thirty  feet 
wide:  the  "Glory  of  Paradise."  He  seemed  to  have 
derived  his  spirit  as  well  as  his  drawing  from  Michad 
Angelo,  and  was  called  the  "Furious;"  but  he  worked  too 
quickly,  and  never  attained  the  perfection  of  his  master, 
although  he  succeeded  in  rivaling  Titian  by  his  brilliant 
coloring. 

Paul  Veronese  ( 1528-1588) ,  another  of  Titian's  rivals, 
was  also  one  of  the  great  magicians  of  art.  He  decorated 
the  Hall  of  the  Council  of  Ten,  in  the  Ducal  Palace,  with 
the  "Apotheosis  of  Venice."  He  also  painted  the  "Abduc- 
tion of  Europa,"  and  above  all  four  "Meals  of  our  Lord" 
for  monastic  refectories.  Of  these  works,  the  "Marriage 
of  Cana"  is  one  of  the  finest  ornaments  of  the  Louvre 
Museum.  Paul  Veronese  broke  through  the  traditions 


94  MODERN  EUROPE 

of  the  Roman  school :  he  did  not  seek  for  historical  truth 
but  dressed  all  his  personages  in  the  fashion  of  his  own 
times,  whatever  epoch  they  may  have  lived  in.  His  apos- 
tles are  rich  Venetians,  feasting  in  palaces.  His  groups 
are  so  well  arranged,  his  figures  (which  were  all  portraits) 
have  so  much  nobility,  so  much  life,  his  coloring  is  so 
bright  and  rich,  that  one  never  wearies  of  admiring  his 
prodigious  works.  To  this  school  we  may  also  add  Cana- 
letto  (1697-1768),  who  painted  the  canals,  the  buildings, 
and  landscapes  of  his  native  city. 

The  city  of  Bologna  filled  a  place  in  the  schools  of 
painting,  chiefly  through  the  Caracci — Louis  Caracci 
(1555-1619)  and  his  two  cousins,  Augustine  and  Anni- 
bal.  The  last  named,  the  boldest  and  most  original,  suc- 
ceeded in  religious  pictures,  but  above  all  in  landscapes, 
for  which  his  works  are  the  first  fine  examples  of  that  style 
found  in  Italy.  But  the  Bolognese  school  was  particu- 
larly renowned  in  the  Seventh  Century  through  the  pupils 
of  the  Caracci — Domenichino,  Guido  Reni,  and  Albano. 

The  influence  of  Italy  spread  all  over  Europe,  and 
every  artist  desired  to  emulate  the  great  masters.  The 
relations  between  Italy  and  Spain  were  so  closely  linked 
that  Spain  was  one  of  the  first  to  imbibe  enthusiasm  for 
Italian  art,  and  the  schools  of  Valencia,  Toledo,  Seville, 
and  Madrid  were  formed.  Yet,  however  great  the  merits 
of  Alonzo  Berruguete,  Juan  de  Juanes,  Luis  de  Morales, 
el  Mudo — surnamed  the  Spanish  Titian — or  of  Alonzo 
Sanchez  Coello  may  have  been,  Spanish  painting  did  not 
really  flourish  until  the  following  Century.  It  required 
time  before  study  could  produce  its  fruits.  In  France 
Italian  artists  were  instructors  of  the  French. 

Flanders  in  some  measure  anticipated  Italy,  but  the 
Flemish  artists,  without  losing  their  original  character- 
istics, were  influenced  by  the  great  Italian  movement,  and 


THE  RENAISSANCE  95 

profited  by  the  lessons  of  those  to  whom  they  had  taught 
painting  in  oil.  Roger  Van  der  Weyden  went  to  Italy 
at  the  moment  when  Masaccio  at  Florence,  Bellini  at  Ven- 
ice, and  Fra  Angelico  at  Rome,  were  restoring  the  art  of 
painting.  Hans  Memling  has  left  considerable  and  varied 
work,  displaying  scenes  from  the  life  and  passion  of  Christ, 
in  admirable  landscapes,  full  of  elegance,  feeling,  and 
charm.  It  would  take  too  long  to  enumerate  the  artists 
who  now  appeared  in  all  the  Flemish  cities,  but  we  must 
not  omit  Quentin  Matsys,  the  friend  of  Erasmus  and  of 
Sir  Thomas  More.  The  imitation  of  Italian  painting  was 
carried  so  far  in  the  Sixteenth  Century  that  entire  colonies 
of  Flemings  settled  in  Florence  and  Rome.  The  taste 
for  art  aroused  by  wealth  and  luxury  was  so  great  that 
in  1560  the  city  oi  Antwerp  alone  contained  three  hundred 
and  sixty  painters  and  sculptors.  But  this  was  only  a 
beginning,  and  in  the  following  Century  Flemish  genius 
attained  a  degree  of  excellence  that  quite  equaled  the  Ital- 
ian art  of  the  Sixteenth  Century. 

The  excellence  of  the  Flemish  painters  aroused  emu- 
lation in  Germany.  From  the  Rhine  cities,  the  nearest  to 
the  Belgian  provinces,  art  penetrated  into  Germany,  and 
in  the  Sixteenth  Century  the  country  boasted  of  Holbein 
(1497-1543)  from  the  school  of  Augsburg,  who  lived  in 
Basle  and  England.  His  works,  composed  of  historical 
pictures  and  portraits,  are  now  in  Hampton  Court  Palace. 
Basle  contains  his  best  designs  and  cartoons;  amongst 
other  things  the  famous  "Dance  Macabre,"  or  "Dance  of 
Death."  Although  his  style  was  still  naive,  we  cannot  but 
admire  Holbein's  knowledge  and  correctness,  and  above  all 
his  brilliant  coloring,  which  places  him  amongst  the  mas- 
ters of  the  Renaissance. 

At  Dresden  appeared  Lucas  Sunder  or  Lucas  Kranch, 
friend  of  Luther's  who  has  left  a  portrait  of  the  Reformer 


96  MODERN  EUROPE 

and  his  disciple  Melanchthon.  At  the  same  time  Albert 
Durer,  (1471-1528)  whose  genius  was  universal,  since  he 
was  sculptor,  architect,  painter,  engraver,  and  author, 
unites  in  his  pictures  the  Flemish  method  with  Italian  in- 
spiration, but  his  art  seems  to  belong  to  a  much  earlier  per- 
iod. His  serious  style  is  powerful,  profound,  and  mysti- 
cal. He  was  the  last  great  German  artist.  The  Refor- 
mation, in  its  hostility  to  images,  turned  Germany  from 
the  cultivation  of  the  arts,  which  the  long  vicissitudes  of 
the  Thirty  Years'  War  also  forcibly  interrupted.  Paint- 
ing in  Germany  commenced  and  ended  with  Albert  Durer 
and  Holbein. 

Art  tended  to  embellish  everything.  Princes,  nobles, 
and  burghers  prided  themselves  on  a  worthy  use  of  their 
wealth;  tapestries  worked  from  designs  furnished  by  the 
great  painters  were  used  to  ornament  the  sumptuous  dwell- 
ings which  the  architects  built  with  so  much  taste  and  skill 
and  the  sculptors  decorated  so  carefully.  The  old  for- 
gotten art  of  ceramics  now  revived.  From  the  Fifteenth 
Century,  Luca  della  Robbia,  (1400-1482)  sculptor  and 
painter,  was  seized  with  the  idea  of  taking  his  earthen  mod- 
els and  enveloping  them  in  a  vitrified  unbreakable  coating. 
His  process  was  imitated,  and  the  Italian  majolicas,  at- 
tributed to  the  Renaissance,  were  eagerly  competed  for. 
Francis  of  Medici  himself  owned  workshops  and  furnaces; 
he  ranked  amongst  the  artists.  Tuscany,  the  Marches, 
and  Venetia,  became  covered  with  factories  from  whence 
issued  an  infinite  number  of  varied  and  elegantly  shaped 
vases.  Italian  artists  went  to  France,  Amboise,  Lyonsl 
Nantes,  and  Croisie,  but  Bernard  Palissy,  at  first  a  com- 
mon glazier,  soon  resolved  to  do  better,  to  abandon  the  use 
of  painting  on  the  surface,  and  to  discover  enamel  through 
fusion.  Pursuing  his  idea  with  rare  pertinacity,  sacrific- 
ing his  modest  resources,  burning  even  his  furniture  and 


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THE  RENAISSANCE  97 

the  floors  of  his  house  to  feed  his  furnace,  sometimes  wear- 
ied but  still  unconquered,  Bernard  Palissy  (Circa  1505- 
1590)  was  one  of  those  men  who  cannot  be  too  highly  hon- 
ored, for  he  was  one  of  those  extraordinary  inventors 
who  triumphed  over  difficulties,  and  enriched  the  world 
with  new  sources  of  wealth  and  with  masterpieces  of  art;  in 
fact,  Bernard  Palissy  succeeded  in  making  enamel  in  en- 
casing in  unalterable  colors,  figures  of  animals  or  human 
faces  upon  his  vases,  dishes,  and  cups.  Modern  races 
had  regained  all  that  the  ancients  had  acquired,  they  now 
possessed  ceramics  as  well  as  sculpture,  painting,  and 
architecture. 

We  cannot  judge  the  music  of  the  ancients,  but  modern 
times  are  supreme  in  this  art,  or  rather  this  language  of  the 
soul.  The  instruments  of  the  middle  ages,  the  rebecq, 
monochord,  and  spinet,  were  perfected ;  the  rebecq  became 
the  violin.  An  Antwerp  carpenter,  Hans  Buckers,  im- 
proved the  keyboard  by  giving  it  four  octaves.  From  that 
time  chants  with  different  parts  could  be  arranged  for  the 
masses,  and  religious  music  found  a  voice  through  Pales- 
trina  (1529-1594),  several  of  whose  chants  are  still  used  in 
churches.  Religious  music  opened  the  way  to  secular  music, 
which  in  the  following  Centuries  so  successfully  translated 
the  sentiments  of  the  heart.  Such  progress  in  the  arts 
denotes  the  great  power  that  the  human  mind  acquired  in 
the  Fifteenth  and  Sixteenth  Centuries;  men  learned  to'see 
and  to  aspire  after  the  beautiful,  a  sublime  pleasure  which 
never  wearies,  but  which  raises  man  above  the  common 
passions  of  daily  life. 

Voi,.  2  —  7 


THE  THIRTY  YEARS'  WAR. 

The  great  struggle  known  as  the  "Thirty  Years'  War," 
which  desolated  Germany,  and  finally  settled  the  limits 
of  Protestantism  and  Catholicism  on  the  continent  of 
Europe,  began  about  1618  and  ended  with  the  Treaty  of 
Westphalia  in  1648.  The  war  was  at  first  religious  in'  its 
objects,  as  a  struggle  of  Catholics  against  Protestants  con- 
cerning the  spiritual  ascendency  of  the  Church  of  Rome, 
but  it  afterward  lost  its  religious  character,  and  became  a 
struggle  of  various  nations — Calvinistic,  Lutheran,  and 
Protestant — banded  against  the  House  of  Austria,  and 
combating  the  temporal  ascendency  of  that  power.  The 
war  became  a  war  for  the  equilibrium  of  Europe,  one  in 
which  community  of  political  interest  was  far  more  re- 
garded than  community  of  religious  belief.  The  war  of 
sects  was  succeeded  by  the  war  of  States,  and  since  the 
middle  of  the  Seventeenth  Century  there  has  been  no  relig- 
ious war  between  Catholics  and  Protestants  as  such. 

Germany  had  been  distracted  ever  since  the  Reforma- 
tion by  the  mutual  jealousy  of  Catholics,  Lutherans,  and 
Calvinists.  The  fire  which  had  long  been  smouldering 
burst  out  into  a  flame  in  Bohemia,  where  the  Protestant 
doctrines  had  made  much  progress  and  received  great  con- 
cessions from  the  Emperor  Rudolph  II  in  1609.  These 
were  withdrawn  by  the  Emperor  Matthias  in  1614,  and  in 
1618  the  Protestants  in  Prague  offered  violence  to  certain 
imperial  councilors,  and  caused  the  first  part  of  the  great 
struggle — that  known  as  the  Bohemian  War.  The  Prot- 
estants in  Bohemia  revolted;  Matthias  died  in  1619,  and 
Ferdinand  II,  who  was  a  rigid  Catholic,  succeeded,  and  re- 


THE  THIRTY  YEARS'  WAR  99 

fused  all  toleration  to  the  Protestants.  When  Frederick, 
Elector  Palatine,  who  was  married  to  Elizabeth,  daughter 
of  James  I,  of  England,  a  Protestant  prince,  was  made 
King  of  Bohemia  by  the  rebels,  the  Catholic  troops  of  Ger- 
many marched  against  him,  and  in  November,  1620, 
gained  the  victory  of  the  Weissenberg,  or  Wrhite  Moun- 
tain, near  Prague,  which  drove  Frederick  from  his  throne, 
put  an  end  to  the  Bohemian  rebellion,  and  crushed  the  Prot- 
estant cause  in  that  quarter.  Frederick's  own  dominions 
on  the  Rhine — the  Palatinate — were  conquered  in  1621- 
1622  by  Spanish  and  Bavarian  troops  under  the  famous 
Count  Tilly  (a  pupil  of  Alva's  in  the  art  of  war),  and  the 
Emperor  Ferdinand  II  was  triumphant  by  1623.  Ferdi- 
nand's intolerance  toward  the  Protestants  caused  help  to 
be  supplied  from  Holland,  and  the  Lutheran  King  Chris- 
tian IV,  of  Denmark,  plunged  into  the  fight,  partly  from 
religious  zeal  and  partly  in  hope  of  gaining  territory. 
The  celebrated  Wallenstein,  Duke  of  Friedland,  whose 
history  is  told  in  an  article  in  the  volume  entitled  "Great 
Warriors,"  now  appeared  on  the  scene  as  the  Emperor's 
general,  and  headed  the  forces  of  the  Catholic  League,  in 
cooperation  with  Tilly,  in  1625.  In  1626  Wallenstein 
defeated  the  Protestant  General,  Count  Mansfield,  at  Des- 
sau, in  the  center  of  Germany,  north  of  Leipsic,  and  Tilly 
drove  back  Christian,  of  Denmark,  to  his  own  dominions. 
Holstein,  Schleswig,  Jutland,  Pomerania,  and  Branden- 
burg were  overrun  by  the  imperial  troops,  and  Ferdinand 
and  Catholicism  were  supreme  in  Germany  to  the  very 
shores  of  the  Baltic.  In  1628  they  received  a  check  at 
Stralsund,  in  northwest  of  Pomerania,  opposite  the  island 
of  Rugen,  which  Wallenstein  besieged  with  furious  efforts 
for  ten  weeks,  being  at  last  forced  to  retreat  with  great 
loss.  In  1629  Christian,  of  Denmark,  retired  from  the 
struggle,  receiving  back  his  devastated  territories,  and 


ioo  MODERN  EUROPE 

undertaking  to  meddle  no  more  in  German  affairs.  Ferdi- 
nand issued  an  edict  which  roused  the  Protestants  once 
more  against  him.  He  required  the  restitution  to  the 
Catholics  of  all  the  church  lands  and  other  property  that 
had  been  acquired  by  the  Protestants  since  the  religious 
peace  of  Passau  in  1552.  This  was  to  deprive  them  of 
many  bishoprics  and  of  almost  all  the  abbeys  and  other 
ecclesiastical  foundations  in  North  Germany;  the  Protes- 
tants refused  to  obey  the  edict,  and  both  sides  prepared 
again  for  war.  Wallenstein  was  deprived  of  his  com- 
mand, and  Tilly  became  head  of  the  imperial  forces.  In 
1631  Tilly  captured  the  Protestant  town  of  Magdeburg, 
and  the  sack  and  destruction  of  the  place  followed,  form- 
ing one  of  the  most  dreadful  episodes  of  this  fratricidal 
war. 

The  Protestant  hero  of  the  struggle  had  already  come 
forth  to  do  battle  for  his  cause.  In  June,  1630,  Gustavus 
Adolphus,  King  of  Sweden,  landed  with  an  army  on  the 
coast  of  Pomerania,  and  was  hailed  by  the  Protestant 
inhabitants  of  Germany  as  a  deliverer  from  Ferdinand, 
and  as  a  champion  of  their  creed  against  the  Catholics. 
This  great  man,  the  best  King  who  ever  reigned  in 
Sweden,  was  a  grandson  of  Gustavus  Vasa,  who  was  the 
author  of  Swedish  independence.  After  an  excellent 
training  in  classical  and  other  studies,  and  in  the  military 
art,  he  commanded  the  Swedish  army  in  a  war  against 
Denmark  at  the  age  of  seventeen.  His  chancellor  and 
chief  minister  was  the  famous  Oxenstiern,  one  of  the 
greatest  of  European  statesmen.  Gustavus  had  warred 
with  success  against  Russia  and  Poland  before  his  Protes- 
tant sympathies,  not  unmixed  with  a  desire  to  extend 
Swedish  influence  and  territory  on  the  southern  shore  of 
the  Baltic,  called  him  into  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  As  a 
commander  he  was  beloved  by  his  troops,  maintained 


THE  THIRTY  YEARS'  WAR  101 

admirable  discipline,  improved  the  equipment  of  soldiers, 
showed  great  skill,  and  acquired  enduring  renown  by  his 
brief  and  brilliant  career.  The  army  which  the  Swedish 
King  took  with  him  was  small — about  13,000  men — but 
o>f  the  highest  quality;  he  was  aided  with  supplies  of  money 
by  the  French  minister  Richelieu,  who  was  jealous  of  the 
power  of  the  House  of  Austria,  and  thousands  of  Scotch 
and  English  volunteers  went  over  to  join  his  standard. 
In  September,  1631,  Gustavus  completely  defeated  Tilly 
at  the  battle  of  Breitenfeld,  near  Leipsic,  and  the  Swedes 
advanced  to  the  Rhine  and  the  Main.  In  April,  1632, 
Gustavus  again  defeated  Tilly,  who  was  mortally  wounded 
at  the  battle  of  the  Lech,  a  tributary  of  the  Danube,  in 
Bavaria,  occupied  Augsburg,  and  advanced  to  Munich. 
The  Emperor  Ferdinand  had  called  Wallenstein  again  to 
his  aid,  and  that  General  raised  a  new  army.  The  caution 
of  this  skillful  leader  at  first  foiled  Gustavus,  who  made 
unsuccessful  attacks  on  his  strong  position  near  Nurem- 
berg, and  then  retired  into  Saxony,  followed  by  Wallen- 
stein. In  November,  1632,  was  fought  the  great  battle 
of  Liitzen,  in  which  the  Swedes,  under  Gustavus  Adol- 
phus,  with  the  troops  of  Bernard,  Duke  of  Saxe- Weimar, 
stormed  Wallenstein's  intrenchments  and  gained  a  decided 
victory,  but  at  the  cost  of  the  Swedish  King's  life — an 
irreparable  loss  to  the  Protestant  cause  in  the  war. 

The  war  was  continued  by  the  Swedish  Chancellor 
Oxenstiern,  acting  for  the  Queen  of  Sweden,  a  mere  child, 
whose  generals  were  Bernard,  of  Weimar,  and  the  Swed- 
ish Commander  Horn.  In  1634  Wallenstein  was  mur- 
dered by  a  conspiracy  of  his  officers,  and  in  the  same  year 
the  imperial  troops  completely  defeated  Bernard  at  Nord- 
lingen,  in  the  west  of  Bavaria.  The  Elector  of  Saxony 
and  some  other  German  princes  now  retired  from  coopera- 
tion with  the  Swedes,  and  made  separate  peaces,  in  1635, 


102  MODERN  EUROPE 

with  the  Emperor,  who  withdrew,  in  effect,  his  edict  about 
restitution  of  property  to  the   Catholic  Church.     The 
Thirty  Years'  War  now  assumed  a  new  phase,  as  a  contest 
of  France  and  Sweden,  directed  by  the   able   statesmen 
Richelieu  and  Oxenstiern,  against  Austria.     Bernard,  of 
Weimar,  and  the  Swedish  Generals  Baner,  Torstenson, 
and  Wrangel,  gained  successes  over  the  imperial  forces, 
and  the  French  armies  fought  with  varied  fortune  in  the 
west  of  Germany  and  on  the  Rhine.     The  Emperor  Ferdi- 
nand II  had  died  in  1637,  and  had  been  succeeded  by  his 
son,  Ferdinand  III;  Richelieu  died  in  1642,  and  his  policy 
was  continued  by  Cardinal  Mazarin.     The  great  French 
Generals  Turenne  and  Conde  had   begun    to   act    with 
decided  effect,  when  the  Emperor  at  last  yielded,  and  the 
long  struggle  ended  with  the  Peace  of  Westphalia  in  1648. 
The  Treaty  of  Westphalia  established  a  new  political 
system  in  Europe.     The  religious  and  political  condition 
of  Germany  were  settled  in  a  way  that   put   Catholics, 
Lutherans,  and  Calvinists  on  a  level  as  to  the  free  exercise 
of  their  religion,  and  that  frustrated  the  consolidation  of 
the  German  Empire.       Thus  the  policy  of  France  and 
Sweden  was  triumphant.     Richelieu,  on  behalf  of  France* 
had  aimed  at  preventing  the  union  of  German  States  into 
one  powerful  whole;  Sweden  had  aimed    at    obtaining 
equality  of  rights  for  the  Protestants  and  acquiring  terri- 
tory in  Germany  for  herself;  both  had  succeeded.     The 
different  princes  and  States  of  the  Empire  had  now  the 
recognized  right  of  making  war  and  alliances  among  them- 
selves or  with  foreigners.     Germany  was,  in  fact,  dis- 
membered.    The  bishoprics  of  Metz,  Toul,  and  Verdun, 
with  Alsace,  and  ten  imperial  cities  were  now  formally 
ceded  to  France;  Sweden  received  part  of  Pomerania,  the 
bishopric  of  Bremen,  and  other  territory ;  the  total  loss  to 
Germany  was  40,000  square  miles.    France  acquired  great 


THE  THIRTY  YEARS'  WAR  103 

influence  in  German  affairs,  and  several  German  princes 
formed  alliances  with  her.  By  the  Treaty  of  Westphalia, 
too,  the  independence  of  Holland  and  of  Switzerland  was 
formally  acknowledged.  The  general  result  was — Ger- 
man disunion  and  weakness,  French  strength  and  aggran- 
dizement, destined  to  have  important  influence  on  the 
future  history  of  Europe.  For  ages  after  this  time  Ger- 
many remained  "a  mere  lax  confederation  of  petty  despot- 
isms and  oligarchies,  with  hardly  any  national  feelings"; 
popular  freedom  became  extinct,  and  over  two  Centuries 
were  to  elapse  before  the  creation  of  unity  in  a  revived 
Empire.  France  became  the  leading  power  in  Europe, 
Spain  having  greatly  declined,  and  the  House  of  Bour- 
bon took  the  first  place  instead  of  the  House  of  Austria. 
The  Thirty  Years'  War  was  not  only  productive  of 
infinite  misery  to  innocent  people  while  it  raged,  but  it  had 
other  ill  effects  on  Germany  of  a  more  lasting  kind.  The 
increase  of  power  in  the  petty  princes  led  to  the  keeping 
up  of  expensive  courts,  standing  armies,  and  hosts  of  civil 
officials,  bringing  heavy  taxation  on  the  long-suffering  and 
industrious  people.  There  was  a  great  decline  in  trade 
and  manufactures,  which  had  been  driven  by  incessant 
commotion  and  destruction  to  other  lands.  Many  of  the 
great  commercial  and  industrial  towns  were  quite  impov- 
erished, and  did  not  recover  their  position  and  wealth  for 
several  generations.  German  art  and  literature  were  for 
a  long  time  destroyed,  and  foreign  influences  prevailed  in 
every  branch  of  culture, 


AGE  OF  LOUIS  XIV 

After  the  death  of  Henry  IV,  of  France,  in  1610  by  the 
hand  and  dagger  of  Ravaillac,  his  son  succeeded  as  Louis 
XIII,  at  the  age  of  nine,  the  regent  being  the  Queen- 
mother,  Maria  de'  Medici.  A  miserable  time  of  court 
intrigues,  factions,  and  internal  disorders  ensued  until 
1624,  when  the  King  gave  himself  up  to  the  guidance  of 
the  great  statesman  who  was  for  twenty  years  to  be  the 
leading  politician  of  Europe  and  the  virtual  sovereign  of 
France.  This  famous  man,  Armand  Jean  du  Plessis, 
Cardinal  de  Richelieu,  was  born  at  Paris  in  1585,  and  in 
1616  became  Secretary  of  State  for  war  and  foreign 
affairs.  After  a  temporary  loss  of  influence,  Richelieu 
came  to  the  head  of  affairs  in  France  in  1624.  Richelieu 
aimed  at  and  effected  three  things.  These  were,  firstly, 
absolute  authority  for  the  French  sovereign  over  the  aris- 
tocracy; secondly,  the  crushing  of  the  political  power  of 
the  Huguenots  or  Protestant  party  in  the  country;  thirdly, 
the  establishment  of  France  as  a  leading  Nation  in  Europe. 
The  qualities  which  enabled  him  to  achieve  these  ends  were 
energy,  perseverance,  determination,  coolness,  and  craft. 
In  curtailing  the  power  of  the  clergy  and  nobles  at  home, 
Richelieu  was  carrying  out  the  plans  of  his  great  predeces- 
sor, Sully.  In  order  to  increase  the  influence  of  France 
abroad,  he  waged  war  both  with  Germany  and  Spain. 

The  struggle  of  the  French  Protestants  for  religious 
freedom  had  often  been  made,  by  the  nobles  and  royal 
princes  of  France,  a  cloak  for  ambitious  designs  in  political 
affairs.  Richelieu  was  well  aware  of  this,  and  determined 
to  end  a  state  of  things  which  acted  as  a  continual  check  on 

104 


AGE  OF  LOUIS  XIV  105 

the  despotic  exercise  of  the  royal  power.  The  Edict  01 
Nantes  had  greatly  increased  the  influence  of  the  Hugue- 
nots; and  soon  after  Richelieu  came  into  power  they  were 
in  a  state  of  revolt,  aiming  at  independence,  and  maintain- 
ing themselves  in  their  stronghold,  La  Rochelle,  on  the 
west  coast  of  France. 

The  resistance  made  against  the  royal  forces  was  of 
the  most  determined  character,  and  was  helped  by  an  Eng- 
lish fleet  under  the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  which  brought 
supplies  for  a  time  to  the  defenders.  Richelieu,  ecclesi- 
astic as  he  was,  commanded  the  attacking  army  in  person, 
and  his  skill  and  patience  reduced  the  town  at  last.  By 
building  a  huge  mole  of  stone  across  the  harbor  mouth 
he  cut  off  the  communication  seaward,  and  forced  a  sur- 
render through  famine  in  October,  1628.  The  attempts 
of  the  Huguenots  to  acquire  distinct  political  power  in  the 
State  were  thus  finally  frustrated.  It  must  not  be  sup- 
posed that  the  great  Cardinal  was  intolerant  in  religious 
matters;  here  he  was  in  advance  of  the  ideas  of  his  age,  and 
left  the  vanquished  Huguenots  liberty  of  worship  and 
equality  of  rights,  employing  them  throughout  his  min- 
istry along  with  Catholics,  in  the  army,  the  magistracy, 
and  other  capacities. 

In  1626  Richelieu  caused  the  demolition  of  all  the 
feudal  castles  which  could  not  be  used  for  the  defense  of 
the  frontiers,  and  which  were  a  perpetual  menace  to  the 
crown,  a  means  of  overawing  the  neighboring  towns  and 
country  districts,  and  a  reminder  to  the  nobles  of  their 
ancient  power.  He  also  abolished  the  offices  of  grand- 
admiral  and  constable,  which  had  given  to  the  holders  an 
almost  royal  authority  over  the  .fleet  and  the  army.  At 
various  times  the  Cardinal  used  the  utmost  rigor  against 
great  nobles  who  disputed  the  King's  preeminence  or 
plotted  his  own  power  in  the  State.  In  1632  the  Duke 


106  MODERN  EUROPE 

of  Montmorency,  a  leading  noble,  was  executed  for  trea- 
son ;  all  attempts  at  resistance  and  all  plots  were  put  down 
or  detected  by  Richelieu's  vigor  and  vigilance,  and  in 
1630  he  had  triumphed  over  the  influence  of  the  Queen- 
mother  herself,  and  caused  the  King  to  banish  her  from 
the  court.  The  policy  of  Richelieu  during  the  Thirty 
Years'  War  was  to  aid,  as  occasion  required,  the  Count  of 
Mansfield  and  Gustavus  Adolp'hus,  in  order  to  humble  the 
German  Emperor,  and  it  was  by  his  assistance  that,  in 
1640,  Portugal  again  becarne  independent  of  Spain.  This 
great  administrator  found  time,  amid  all  his  political 
schemes,  to  encourage  literature  and  science,  being  the 
founder  of  the  famous  French  Academy  and  the  Jardin 
des  Plantes.  He  died  in  1642,  and  early  in  1643  Louis 
XIII  followed  him,  leaving  a  son  five  years  old,  who  suc- 
ceeded him  as  Louis  XIV.  Richelieu  is  the  subject  of  a 
sketch  in  the  volume  "Foreign  Statesmen." 

Louis  XIV  came  to  the  throne  of  France  in  1643,  and 
reigned  for  seventy-two  years,  until  1715.  His  reign 
forms  a  period  of  great  importance  in  the  history  both 
of  France  and  of  Europe — one  in  which  France  rose  to 
the  height  of  power  and  was  a  standing  menace  to  other 
States.  The  interest  belonging  to  this  age  is  of  the  high- 
est and  most  varied  kind,  including  momentous  contests 
on  the  field  of  battle,  affecting  the  welfare  of  the  leading 
Nations  of  Europe;  grand  scientific  discoveries;  the  splen- 
dor of  literary  glory;  the  eloquence  of  great  divines;  the 
creation  of  public  works  in  France — roads,  canals,  ports, 
fortresses,  and  splendid  buildings  for  the  adornment  of  her 
capital;  the  development  of  French  art,  manufactures, 
commerce,  and  colonization;  the  founding  of  literary  and 
scientific  institutions;  the  spread  of  the  renown  of  the 
"Grand  Monarque,"  as  the  French  styled  their  King,  to 
the  furthest  regions  of  the  globe.  With  this  the  historian 


AGE  OF  LOUIS  XIV  107 

of  France  must  record  the  vanishing  of  the  last  vestiges  of 
constitutional  freedom  in  the  land;  the  monstrous  growth 
of  luxury  at  the  court;  the  drying  up  of  the  true  sources 
of  national  prosperity  through  an  evil  system  of  finance, 
consisting  mainly  of  a  severe  and  unequal  taxation  which 
pressed  heavily  on  the  cultivators  of  the  soil;  the  cor- 
ruption of  national  manners  and  morals  through  vicious 
indulgence  in  the  highest  ranks,  veiled  by  courtly  graces 
of  demeanor,  and  gilded  by  the  display  of  imposing  mag- 
nificence in  equipage  and  costume;  the  increase  of  pov- 
erty, deepening  into  penury  and  wretchedness,  among 
the  tillers  of  the  soil;  the  utter  defeat  of  French  schemes 
of  universal  conquest;  the  passing  of  glory  into  gloom,  of 
exultation  into  silence  and  shame;  the  final  leaving  of  a 
legacy  of  incipient  and  ever-growing  mischief  to  a  suc- 
cessor on  the  throne  who  was  to  bring  France  near  to 
the  ruin  and  resurrection  known  as  the  First  French 
Revolution.  All  this,  and  more  than  this,  is  involved  in 
the  narrative  of  the  age  of  Louis  XIV,  of  which  we  here 
.present  the  outline. 

The  long  Feign  of  Louis  XIV  may  be  divided  into 
three  parts:  (i)  The  government  of  Cardinal  Mazarin; 

(2)  The  development  of  ambitious  policy  of  the  King; 

(3)  The  general  failure  of  those  schemes  of  aggrandize- 
ment. 

While  Louis  XIV  was  a  minor  his  mother,  Anne  of 
Austria,  daughter  of  Philip  III,  King  of  Spain,,  held  the 
Regency.  She  made  Cardinal  Mazarin,  an  Italian  and  a 
friend  of  Richelieu's,  her  first  Minister,  and  he  ruled 
the  country,  with  intervals  of  brief  banishment  and  dis- 
grace, from  1643  to  1 66 1.  He  had  great  difficulties  to 
contend  with  at  first,  as  the  jealous  nobles  plotted 
against  him  in  the  hope  of  recovering  the  power  lost 
under  Richelieu,  and  bad  finance  with  heavy  taxes 


io8  MODERN  EUROPE 

caused  an  outbreak  of  civil  war.     The  French  Parlia- 
ment still  tried  to  assert  its  rights  in  refusing  to  register 
royal  decrees  as  to  taxation,  and  the  party  opposed  to 
the    Queen-Regent   and    Mazarin   was   known   as   the 
Fronde.     This  term  was  one  used  derisively  of  the  Par- 
liamentary party,  as  if  they  were  like  the  schoolboys, 
who,  each  armed  with  a  sling  (fronde),  did  mischief  in 
the  streets  of  Paris,  dispersing  at  the  sight  of  a  police- 
man and  rallying  when  he  disappeared.     A  wit  of  the 
time  mocked  by  this  word  the  spasmodic  efforts  of  the 
Constitutional  party,  and  they  adopted  it  in  earnest, 
wearing  a  hat-cord  in  the  form  of  a  sling,  and  calling 
themselves  Frondeurs.     The  feeble  doings  of  the  sup- 
porters of  freedom  in  France  were  in  strong  contrast  to 
those  of  the  Englishmen  who  had,  shortly  before  this, 
dealt  decisively  with  the  tyranny  of  Charles  I.     The 
Fronde  lasted  from  1648  to  1654,  and  the  selfishness  of 
the  leaders   of  the  revolt,   and  the  desultory   aimless 
violence  which  they  used,  served  only  to  strengthen  the 
royal  power. 

In  1659  Mazarin  made  peace  with  Spain,  and  Louis 
XIV  married  Maria  Theresa,  the  Spanish  King's  daugh- 
ter, an  alliance  of  importance  in  the  future  as  regarded 
the  affairs  of  France  and  Spain.  In  1661  Mazarin  died, 
and  the  King,  at  the  age  of  twenty-three,  took  power  at 
once  into  his  own  hands,  and  remained  until  the  day  of 
his  death  absolute  master  of  his  realm. 

The  States- General  of  France,  which  body  answered 
most  nearly  to  a  Parliament,  had  met,  for  the  last  time 
before  the  Revolution  of  1789,  in  the  year  1615.  The 
French  "Parliament"  was  the  Parliament  of  Paris,  the 
highest  French  court  of  law.  The  claim  of  this  body  to 
the  right  of  refusing  to  register  the  royal  decrees  was 
now  entirely  disregarded  by  Louis  XIV,  and  in  1673  he 


AGE  OF  LOUIS  XIV  109 

ordered  that  all  his  edicts  should  be  registered  within 
eight  days  without  discussion — a  demand  with  which 
the  Parliament  henceforth  complied.  The  French 
monarchy  became  more  absolute  than  any,  except  that 
of  Russia,  which  modern  times  have  seen  in  Europe, 
The  will  of  the  King  was,  literally,  the  law  of  the  land, 
and  when  Louis  XIV  said  (as  he  often  did) — "L'Etat, 
c'est  moi" — "I  am  the  State" — he  was  not,  as  is  often 
supposed,  uttering  a  vainglorious  and  tyrannical  boast, 
but  reminding  those  around  him  of  a  simple  and  incon- 
trovertible fact. 

Louis  XIV  has  been  sarcastically  styled  by  Lord 
Bolingbroke  "the  best  actor  of  Majesty  that  ever  filled 
a  throne."  Macaulay  says:  "He  was  not  a  great  Gen- 
eral; he  was  not  a  great  statesman;  but  he  was,  in  one 
sense  of  the  words,  a  great  King.  Never  was  there  so 
consummate  a  master  of  what  our  James  the  First  would 
have  called  King-craft — of  all  those  arts  which  most 
advantageously  display  the  merits  of  a  Prince,  and  most 
completely  hide  his  defects."  The  truth  is  that  there 
is  much  in  the  history  of  Louis  XIV's  reign  which 
strikes  the  imagination  and  throws  a  glamor  over  the 
facts  that  his  internal  administration  and  foreign  policy 
were  in  the  end  failures;  that  the  best  interests  of  the 
Nation  were  sacrificed  to  the  magnificence  of  the  court, 
the  vanity  of  the  monarch,  and  the  intolerance  of  re- 
ligious bigotry;  and  that,  in  creating  an  unnatural  and 
delusive  splendor,  the  whole  system  was  tending  to 
inevitable  gloom  and  decay. 

The  King  himself,  who  stood  but  five  feet  eight,  was 
made  to  look  majestically  tall,  as  men  thought,  by  being 
propped  below  on  shoes  with  heels  four  inches  deep, 
and  crowned  above  with  huge  long-flowing  wig.  A 
swelling  chest,  and  head  reared  well  aloft,  with  strutting 


no  MODERN  EUROPE 

gait,  and  out-turned  toes,  complete  the  picture  of  the 
personal  appearance  and  demeanor  of  the  man  whom 
Frenchmen  of  the  Seventeenth  Century  delighted  to 
honor  and  obey.  It  must,  nevertheless,  be  admitted, 
that  in  some  points  the  manners  of  the  great  Louis  and 
his  courtiers  possessed  a  grace,  however  studied,  an  air 
and  tone,  however  artificial,  a  polish,  however  assumed 
and  insincere,  which  were  to  be  preferred  to  the  boorish 
roughness  and  simplicity  that  followed  the  decay  of 
chivalry  in  many  parts  of  Europe.  Under  Louis  XIV 
French  ways  and  fashions  became  the  models  for  the 
higher  circles  of  society  in  every  other  country,  and 
some  good,  along  with  much  evil,  was  the  result  to  the 
civilization  of  the  time.  Louis  XIV  was  a  man  who, 
with  little  or  no  education,  had  a  keen  eye  for  genius 
and  ability  in  others,  who  could  choose  his  instruments 
well,  and  who  showed  energy,  promptness,  and  determi- 
nation in  the  use  of  means  for  the  attainment  of  his  ends. 

The  power  of  France,  when  it  was  fully  developed 
under  Louis  XIV,  was  indeed  formidable.  The  terri- 
tory of  the  country  was  "large,  compact,  fertile,  well- 
placed  both  for  attack  and  for  defense,  situated  in  a 
happy  climate,  well  inhabited  by  a  brave,  active,  and 
ingenious  people."  The  Government  was  absolute,  so 
that  all  the  resources  of  the  Nation  could  be  promptly 
wielded  at  the  direction  of  a  single  will.  The  revenue  of 
the  crown  far  exceeded  in  amount  that  of  any  other 
European  monarchy. 

The  army,  excellently  disciplined,  and  commanded 
by  the  greatest  Generals  then  living,  consisted  of  more 
than  120,000  men.  Such  an  array  of  regular  troops  had 
not  been  seen  in '  Europe  since  the  downfall  of  the 
Roman  Empire.  France  was  also  becoming  powerful  at 
sea,  and  soon  had  no  superior  in  maritime  forces  Such 


AGE  OF  LOUIS  XIV  in 

was  her  strength  during-  the  last  forty  years  of  the  Seven- 
teenth Century,  that  no  enemy  could  singly  withstand 
her,  and  that  two  great  coalitions,  in  which  half  Chris- 
tendom was  united  against  her,  failed  of  success.  A 
country  thus  strong  and  united  in  herself,  and  ruled  by 
a  warlike,  ambitious,  and  high-spirited  sovereign,  could 
not  but  be  an  object  of  concern  to  the  other  Nations  of 
Europe,  when  Louis  XIV,  in  1661,  assumed  the  Gov- 
ernment of  France. 

Nor  was  there  in  other  Nations  of  Europe  at  this 
time  anything  that  promised  a  stout  resistance  to  the 
schemes  of  conquest  cherished  by  the  French  King. 
England,  by  the  return  of  the  Stuarts,  was  reduced  to  a 
nullity.  Whenever  Charles  II  took  any  part  in  Eu- 
ropean politics,  his  conduct  was  almost  always  dishonor- 
able, wicked,  and  calculated  to  further  the  objects  of 
Louis  XIV's  ambition.  When  England,  until  1688, 
was  not  an  idle  spectator  of  what  was  passing  abroad,  she 
was  either  an  active  ally  on  the  side  of  France,  or  only 
a  faint-hearted  and  desultory  ally  against  her.  The 
weakness  and  disunion  of  Germany  were  accomplished 
by  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  The  power  of  Spain  had 
greatly  declined,  and  she  had  been  recently  beaten  in 
war  by  France,  notably  at  the  great  battle  of  Rocroi,  in 
the  northeast  of  France,  in  1643,  where  the  Due  d'Eng- 
hien,  afterward  famous  as  the  great  Conde,  had  gained 
a  signal  victory  toward  the  close  of  the  Thirty  Years' 
War.  In  1646  the  same  General  had  taken  Dunkirk 
from  Spain.  In  1656  and  1657  he  had  gained  successes 
for  his  old  foes,  the  Spaniards,  whom  he  had  joined 
through  discontent  at  his  treatment  by  Mazarin;  but 
in  1658  Conde  and  the  Spanish  forces  were  beaten  near 
Dunkirk,  at  the  Battle  of  the  Dunes,  in  which  Crom- 
well's soldiers  took  a  brave  part  on  the  French  side,  by 


ii2  MODERN  EUROPE 

the  famous  General,  Turenne,  and  this  had  brought 
about  the  Peace  of  the  Pyrenees  with  Spain,  in  favor  of 
France,  in  1659.  It  was  the  small  and  stubborn  new 
Republic  of  Holland  that  at  this  crisis  proved  an  invalua- 
ble champion  in  the  interests  of  European  independence. 
She  offered  from  the  first  a  steady  resistance  to  the  ambi- 
tion of  Louis  XIV,  sustained  his  fiercest  attacks,  and  in 
the  end  baffled  his  utmost  efforts  to  subdue  her,  until 
the  time  came  when  the  genius  of  Marlborough,  wield- 
ing the  power  of  England,  struck  down  the  French 
tyrant  on  the  battle  ground  of  Blenheim. 

The  man  who  did  most  for  France  in  this  age  in  the 
development  of  her  resources  was  Jean  Baptiste  Colbert, 
the  famous  finance  minister,  of  Scottish  descent,  who 
came  into  power  in  1662  as  head  of  the  financial  depart- 
ment; in  1664  as  superintendent  of  public  buildings,  arts, 
and  manufactures;  and  in  1669  as  Minister  of  the 
Marine.  In  these  capacities  the  ability  and  energy  of 
Colbert  did  wonders  for  France.  His  single  genius  cre- 
ated the  finances,  commerce,  manufactures,  and  naval 
power  of  France.  In  the  revenue  department  Colbert 
did  away  with  fraud,  disorder,  and  corruption;  he 
increased  the  revenue,  and  at  the  same  time  diminished 
taxation,  as  Sully  had  done  under  Henri  Quatre.  His 
measures  greatly  increased  French  trade  and  manufac- 
tures; French  ships  covered  the  seas;  companies  were 
formed  for  trading  to  the  East  and  West  Indies  and  the 
Coast  of  Africa;  the  colonies  in  Canada  and  the  West 
Indies  began  to  flourish;  new  settlements  were  made  in 
Madagascar  and  Cayenne;  a  powerful  navy  was  created, 
with  fortified  dockyards  and  arsenals  at  Brest,  Roche- 
fort,  and  Toulon.  Under  Colbert's  direction  of  affairs 
the  civil  and  criminal  legislation  were  improved  and  the 
arts  and  sciences  were  encouraged.  In  1663  the 


AGE  OF  LOUIS  XIV  113 

Academy  of  Inscriptions  was  founded,  in  1666  the 
Academy  of  Sciences,  in  1671  the  Academy  of  Architec- 
ture. Literature,  astronomy,  botany,  and  natural  his- 
tory were  all  fostered  by  this  great  minister,  who  died  in 
1683. 

In  military  affairs,  the  highest  service  was  rendered 
by  Vauban,  the  greatest  engineer  ever  produced  by 
France,  who  became  Commissioner-General  of  Fortifica- 
tions in  1677.  He  carried  the  art  of  fortifying,  attack- 
ing, and  defending  towns  to  a  degree  of  perfection  be- 
fore unknown.  Vauban's  work  for  his  country  con- 
sisted in  the  fortification  of  over  300  ancient  citadels,  the 
erection  of  thirty-three  new  ones,  and  the  principal  man- 
agement and  direction  of  fifty-three  sieges.  He  became 
Marshal  of  France  in  1703,  and  his  fame  has  never  been 
surpassed  in  his  particular  line  of  achievement.  The 
frontiers  of  the  east  and  north  of  France  were  ultimately 
defended  by  a  triple  line  of  fortresses,  including  the 
strong  citadels  of  Strasburg,  Lille,  and  Metz. 

Louis  XIV  did  not  make  the  best  of  the  great 
resources  of  wealth,  energy,  and  skill  which  were  at  his 
command  when  he  found  himself  master  of  France  and 
in  a  position  to  carry  his  arms  beyond  her  already  ample 
frontiers.  In  1665  Philip  IV  (Louis'  father-in-law) 
of  Spain  died,  and  then  Louis,  in  the  name  of  his  wife, 
though,  at  his  marriage,  he  had  formally  renounced  such 
a  pretention,  advanced  a  claim  to  the  possession  of  the 
Spanish  Netherlands,  partly  what  is  now  Belgium,  and 
went  to  war  in  1667.  Turenne  was  the  General  in  com- 
mand, and  soon  took  Lille  and  other  fortresses,  conquer- 
ing in  three  weeks  what  was  afterward  known  as  French 
Flanders.  In  1668  the  designs  of  Louis  were  for  a  time 
checked  by  the  conclusion  of  the  treaty  called  the  Triple 
Alliance  between  Sweden,  Holland,  and  England,  and  in 

VOI,.  2  —  8 


ii4  MODERN  EUROPE 

the  Treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  Louis  gave  up  his  claim  to 
Flanders  (the  Spanish  Netherlands),  but  was  allowed  to 
keep  Lille,  Tournai,  Charleroi,  Douai,  and  Courtrai,  the 
fortresses  which  he  had  captured.  The  result  of  this 
first  effort  of  the  ambitious  Louis  had  been  a  distinct  and 
important  gain  to  France. 

Louis  XIV  was  actuated  by  a  twofold  ambition  in 
the  wars  of  conquest  which  he  waged  with  the  Nations 
around  him.  He  desired,  as  a  means  to  a  greater  end, 
to  round  off  his  frontier  and  increase  his  power  by  the 
annexation  of  such  neighboring  provinces  and  towns 
as  lay  conveniently  for  this  purpose.  The  greater  end 
which  he  kept  always  in  view,  in  his  diplomacy  and  his 
fighting,  was  the  acquirement  for  the  house  of  Bourbon 
of  the  whole  Empire  of  Spain — or,  in  other  words, 
making  France  the  one  great  irresistible  power  of 
Europe  and  the  world.  For  this  purpose,  he  lavished 
the  treasure  and  blood  of  France  without  scruple  or 
remorse;  for  this  purpose,  he  never  in  any  transaction  of 
his  whole  reign  showed  the  smallest  respect  for  the  most 
solemn  obligations  of  public  faith,  but  violated  every 
treaty  as  soon  as  he  found  it  convenient  to  do  so.  One 
of  the  favorite  projects  of  Louis  XIV  was  the  annexation 
of  the  territory  in  the  east  of  France  then  known  as 
Franche-Comte  (Upper  Burgundy,  now  the  depart- 
ments of  Doubs,  Haute  Saone,  and  Jura),  which  had 
passed  from  France,  under  Charles  VIII,  to  Germany, 
and  came  to  Spain  on  the  abdication  of  Charles  V.  The 
treaty  of  the  Triple  Alliance,  compelling  Louis  XIV  to 
surrender  again  Franche-Comte,  which  Conde  had  over- 
run early  in  1668,  was  the  one  good  act  of  foreign  policy 
in  which  the  Government  of  Charles  II  of  England  was 
concerned  during  the  whole  of  his  reign. 

Holland,  now  at  the  height  of  her  maritime  power 


AGE  OF  LOUIS  XIV  115 

and  a  rival  of  England  on  the  seas,  had  aroused  the 
wrath  of  Louis  XIV,  and  he  resolved  on  the  destruction 
of  her  independence  and  the  annexation  of  her  territory. 
Charles  II  of  England,  against  the  will  of  his  people,  lent 
his  aid  to  France.  The  French  armies  invaded  Holland 
in  1672,  and  some  of  the  provinces  were  soon  overrun. 
The  Dutch  then  made  a  desperate  resistance,  and  were 
saved  from  utter  ruin  only  by  the  determination  of  their 
youthful  statesman,  the  Prince  of  Orange,  afterward 
William  III  of  England.  He  was  then  twenty-two  years 
old,  and  declared  that  he  would  die  in  his  country's  last 
ditch  rather  than  see  her  lost.  The  dikes  were  cut  and 
the  waters  of  the  ocean  were  let  in  over  the  land;  the 
flood  kept  back  the  French  forces,  and  in  the  end  caused 
their  withdrawal  from  the  country.  In  1674  England 
gave  up  the  French  alliance,  and  a  grand  league  was 
formed  against  Louis  XIV,  composed  of  the  German 
Emperor  Leopold,  Spain,  Denmark,  Holland,  and  the 
Elector  of  Brandenburg  (the  nucleus  of  the  modern 
Prussia).  From  1674  to  1678  a  great  struggle  raged  in 
the  Rhine  Provinces  of  Germany,  in  Flanders,  Alsace, 
and  Franche-Comte.  On  the  French  side  the  chief 
commanders  were  Turenne  and  Conde;  for  the  allies,  the 
great  Italian  Montecucoli,  one  of  the  chief  command- 
ers of  modern  times,  Turenne's  most  redoubtable  antag- 
onist, and  the  young  William  of  Orange.  Montecucoli 
greatly  distinguished  himself  against  the  Swedish  army 
in  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  and  elsewhere,  and  was  now 
placed  at  the  head  of  the  Imperial  troops  in  the  war  with 
France.  Both  he  and  Turenne,  in  1675,  showed  the 
greatest  skill  and  patience  in  their  maneuvers  against 
each  other  near  the  Rhine,  until  the  great  Frenchman 
was  killed  by  a  cannon  ball  as  he  was  preparing  to 
encounter  Montecucoli;  Conde  then  drove  the  Italian 


ii6  MODERN  EUROPE 

out  of  Alsace,  after  having,  in  1674,  defeated  William  of 
Orange  at  the  battle  of  Senef,  between  Mons  and  Water- 
loo, in  Flanders.  The  military  career  of  the  great 
Conde  ended  with  this  war,  which  closed,  after  alterna- 
tions of  success  with  the  Peace  of  Nimeguen  in  1678. 

By  this  war  and  treaty  France  had  again  secured  an 
increase  of  territory,  power,  and  renown.  More  strong 
fortresses  and  thriving  towns  in  Flanders  (what  is  now 
the  north  of  France  and  the  south  of  Belgium)  were 
obtained,  Franche-Comte  was  finally  secured,  and  a  part 
of  Alsace  annexed,  enabling  Louis  shortly  afterward  to 
seize  other  portions,  as  he  did  with  the  free  imperial 
city  of  Strasburg  in  1681.  The  influence  of  France  was 
now  widespread  in  Europe,  extending  even  to  Turkey, 
with  whom  an  alliance  had  been  lately  formed  against 
the  Empire.  Holland  recovered  under  the  Treaty  of 
Nimeguen  all  the  territory  which  she  had  lost,  so  that 
the  chief  loser  in  the  war  was  Spain.  Louis  XIV  was  at 
the  height  of  his  power  and  glory,  purchased  by  sacri- 
fices in  men  and  money  which  had  an  evil  effect  on  the 
future  of  France. 

The  evil  genius  of  Louis  XIV's  career  was  his  war- 
minister  Louvois,  who  after  1666  had  the  whole  manage- 
ment of  military  affairs.  He  was  hostile  to  Colbert,  and 
exercised  a  despotic  control  over  the  army  and  a  con- 
siderable influence  over  Louis,  even  during  Colbert's 
life.  Louvois  was  an  able  and  energetic  minister,  but 
his  policy  as  a  statesman,  lavish  of  the  blood  and  treas- 
ure of  France,  made  his  administration,  though  brilliant 
in  successes  largely  gained  through  his  reformed  organ- 
ization of  the  army,  disastrous  in  the  end  to  the  country 
which  he  served.  His  schemes  of  foreign  policy  were 
bold  and  grasping,  and  it  was  at  his  instigation  that  the 
wars  with  Spain  and  Holland  were  begun  in  1667  and 


AGE  OF  LOUIS  XIV  117 

1672.  On  Colbert's  death,  in  1683,  the  influence  of 
Louvois  over  the  King 'became  greater,  and  his  advice 
had  fatal  effects,  though  he  conducted  with  great  ability 
the  wars  which  ensued  upon  his  counsels.  He  was  in 
power  until  his  death  in  1691;  his  army  system  lasted 
until  the  Revolution  of  1789,  but  he  undid  much  of  the 
work  of  Colbert,  and  greatly  injured  the  commerce  of 
France. 

Louis  XIV,  on  the  death  of  his  wife,  Maria  Theresa 
of  Spain,  in  1683,  privately  married  Madame  de  Mainte- 
non,  who  henceforth  greatly  ruled  his  policy,  and  who 
is  described  in  the  volume  "World's  Famous  Women." 
It  was  she  and  Louvois  who  induced  Louis  to  take  one 
of  the  most  impolitic  steps  of  his  reign  in  persecuting  the 
Huguenots,  with  the  idea  of  having  only  one  form  of 
faith  and  church  government  throughout  France.  The 
raids  made  by  parties  of  dragoons  upon  the  Calvinistic 
heretics  are  known  as  dragonnades.  The  Huguenots 
were  forbidden  to  practice  in  professions  and  several 
important  trades,  or  to  hold  public  offices,  and  this  was 
accompanied  by  still  more  decisive  action.  In  1685  the 
tolerant  Edict  of  Nantes,  promulgated  by  Henri  Quatre 
in  1598,  was  revoked  by  Louis,  and  all  the  privileges 
granted  to  the  Huguenots  were  swept  away.  Their 
churches  were  pulled  down,  their  worship  was  sup- 
pressed, their  ministers  were  banished,  and  the  Protes- 
tant laity  were  forbidden  to  leave  the  country  under 
severe  penalties.  Disobedience  to  the  decree  was  fol- 
lowed by  imprisonment,  torture,  and  outrage,  and  the 
natural  result  followed.  The  Huguenots  sought  safety 
and  freedom  of  conscience  abroad,  and  in  a  short  time 
France  was  permanently  the  poorer  by  the  loss  of  over 
half  a  million  of  Protestant  refugees,  including  many 
thousands  of  industrious  and  skillful  artisans,  who  had 


nS  MODERN  EUROPE 

fled  to  England,  Holland,  Switzerland,  and  the  Protes- 
tant  parts  of  Germany.  The  growth  of  the  silk  manu- 
facture in  England  and  elsewhere,  and  of  many  other 
profitable  occupations,  dates  from  this  exile  of  the 
Huguenots. 

Louis  XIV's  old  enemy,  William  of  Orange,  gained 
in  1689  a  great  accession  of  power  in  becoming  King 
of  England  as  William  III.  He  was  the  most  able  and 
determined  foe  of  the  ambitious  schemes  of  the  French 
King,  and  made  it  the  business  of  his  life  to  thwart  his 
policy  at  every  turn.  A  general  league  was  now  formed 
against  France,  and  included  England,  Spain,  Holland, 
Sweden,  the  German  Empire,  Savoy,  and  other  smaller 
States.  Louis  declared  war,  and  another  struggle 
began  which  lasted  for  eight  years,  1689-1697.  The 
armies  of  the  allies  in  Flanders  under  William  III  were 
generally  unsuccessful  against  the  French  under  the 
Duke  of  Luxembourg,  Marshal  of  France,  but  they 
occupied  a  great  part  of  the  French  army,  and  encour- 
aged resistance  in  other  quarters.  The  French  Marshal 
Catinat,  a  pupil  in  war  of  the  great  Conde,  fought  bril- 
liantly against  the  Duke  of  Savoy,  occupying  Savoy  and 
part  of  Piedmont.  The  war  was  ended  by  the  Peace  of 
Ryswick  (a  village  in  Holland)  in  1697.  The  conquests 
on  both  sides  were  generally  given  up,  but  France  was 
left  in  possession  of  Alsace,  Strasburg,  and  Artois.  The 
resources  of  the  country  were  much  diminished,  and  yet 
Louis  XIV  regarded  the  peace  as  a  mere  truce,  to  gain 
breathing-time  and  strength  for  a  still  greater  struggle 
into  which  his  ambitious  policy  was  soon  to  plunge  him. 

In  1698  there  came  up  the  complicated  question  of 
the  succession  to  the  Spanish  throne,  which  displayed 
the  grasping  and  formidable  ambition  of  Louis  XIV, 
and  ultimately  caused  the  great  war  which  put  an  end  to 


AGE  OF  LOUIS  XIV  119 

the  predominance  of  France  in  Europe.  Charles  II  of 
Spain  had  no  children;  and  various  claims  to  his  domin- 
ions, or  parts  of  them,  were  put  forward  in  prospect  of 
his  speedy  death.  Louis  XIV,  whose  aim  was  to  make 
French  power  and  influence  supreme  in  Europe, 
demanded  the  Spanish  throne  for  his  son  Louis,  the 
Dauphin  of  France,  as  being  son  of  his  Queen  Maria 
Theresa,  elder  daughter  of  Philip  IV  of '  Spain,  and 
sister  to  Charles  II.  The  Elector  of  Bavaria  claimed  it 
for  his  son  on  the  ground  of  descent  from  Margaret 
Theresa,  younger  daughter  of  Philip  IV  of  Spain.  Both 
claims  were  unjust,  because  Maria  Theresa  had,  on  her 
marriage  to  Louis  XIV,  renounced  for  her  descendants 
all  claim  to  the  Spanish  succession,  and  a  like  renuncia- 
tion had  been  made  by  the  daughter  of  Margaret 
Theresa  when  she  married  the  Elector  of  Bavaria.  The 
Emperor  Leopold  of  Germany  claimed  the  Spanish 
throne  for  his  son  Charles  on  the  ground  of  his  own 
lineal  descent  from  Philip  III  of  Spain,  father  of 
Philip  IV.  In  October,  1698,  William  III  of  England 
and  Louis  XIV  tried  to  arrange  matters  by  the  First 
Partition  Treaty  for  dividing  the  Spanish  dominions 
(which  included  Spain,  a  large  part  of  Italy,  the  Spanish 
Netherlands,  and  East  and  West  Indian  possessions)  be- 
tween the  three  claimants.  Charles  II  of  Spain,  however, 
recovered  from  his  illness,  and,  on  hearing  of  the  secret 
treaty,  made  a  will  leaving  all  his  dominions  to  the  elec- 
toral Prince  of  Bavaria.  In  February,  1699,  the  Bavar- 
ian Prince  died,  and  all  was  unsettled  again.  In  Febru- 
ary, 1700,  the  Second  Partition  Treaty  was  made  for 
dividing  the  Spanish  dominions  between  the  remaining 
two  claimants,  namely,  the  Dauphin  of  France  and 
Charles,  the  son  of  the  Emperor  Leopold.  All  was 
made  vain  on  the  death  of  Charles  II  of  Spain  in  Octo- 


120  MODERN  EUROPE 

her,  1700,  when  by  will  he  left  the  whole  of  his  domin- 
ions to  Philip  Duke  of  Anjou,  second  son  of  the  Dauphin 
of  France,  and  so  grandson  of  Louis  XIV.  This  Prince 
was  at  once  proclaimed  as  Philip  V  of  Spain;  and  it  was 
then  that  Louis  XIV  proudly  declared  that  "the 
Pyrenees  had  ceased  to  exist,"  meaning  that  France  and 
Spain  were  now  virtually  one  dominion.  The  indigna- 
tion of  Austria  was  at  once  roused  against  this  settle- 
ment. The  Emperor  Leopold's  son  Charles  assumed 
the  title  of  "Charles  III  of  Spain,"  and  the  Emperor  pre- 
pared for  war.  William  III  took  instant  and  energetic 
action.  He  made  use  of  the  urgent  alarm  which  was 
felt  throughout  Europe  to  form  the  Grand  Alliance 
against  France,  composed  of  England,  Holland,  and 
Austria  (afterward  joined  by  Portugal,  the  Elector  of 
Brandenburg,  Savoy,  and  Denmark),  in  support  of  the 
claim  of  Leopold's  son  Charles  to  be  King  of  Spain. 
This  arrangement  was  made  in  September,  1701.  The 
aim  of  Louis  XIV  was  made  clear  by  his  issue  of  letters- 
patent  in  favor  of  his  grandson  Philip  V  of  Spain,  pre- 
serving his  rights  to  the  throne  of  France.  On  the 
death  of  Louis  XIV  France  and  the  Spanish  dominions 
would  thus  form  one  preponderating  Empire.  Louis 
was  already  in  possession  of  many  strong  fortresses  on 
the  frontier  of  the  Spanish  Netherlands,  and  the  danger 
was  great  and  immediate,  the  resources  of  the  whole 
Spanish  monarchy  being  now  virtually  at  the  French 
King's  disposal.  The  Grand  Alliance  was  concluded  on 
September  7,  1701;  and  Louis  further  provoked  Eng- 
land by  recognizing  the  elder  Pretender  as  claimant  for 
the  throne  of  England,  when  James  II  died  at  St. 
Germains  on  September  i6th.  While  William  III  was 
making  vigorous  preparations  for  war,  he  died  in  Febru- 


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AGE  OF  LOUIS  XIV  121 

ary,  1702,  and  Queen  Anne  declared  war  against  France 
and  Spain  in  May. 

The  great  struggle  that  followed,  known  as  the  War 
of  the  Spanish  Succession,  lasted  for  twelve  years 
(1702-1714),  and  was  carried  on  in  Flanders,  Germany, 
Italy,  and  Spain,  in  a  series  of  campaigns. 

In  Flanders  the  war  was  maintained  for  the  allies 
with  great  success  by  the  leading  general  of  the  age,  one 
of  the  greatest  in  all  history,  the  Duke  of  Marlborough. 
He  there  took  many  fortresses  from  the  French,  and 
defeated  the  French  and  Bavarians  under  Marshal  Ville- 
roy  at  Ramillies  in  1706.  In  1708,  in  conjunction  with 
his  able  and  faithful  supporter,  Prince  Eugene  of  Savoy, 
Marlborough  beat  the  French  under  the  Duke  of 
Vendome  at  Oudenarde,  and  drove  them  completely 
out  of  Flanders.  In  1709  Marlborough  and  Eugene 
won  the  desperate  battle  of  Malplaquet  against  the 
French  under  Marshals  Villars  and  Boufflers,  and  in 
1710  Douai  and  other  fortresses  were  taken.  The 
decisive  battle  of  the  war,  rightly  viewed  as  to  its  ulti- 
mate result,  was  fought  in  Germany.  The  Elector  of 
Bavaria  had  joined  Louis  XIV's  cause,  and  the  Emperor 
Leopold  was  soon  brought  into  great  straits  by  French 
successes.  The  Generals  commanding  Louis'  forces  in 
that  quarter  were  Marshals  Tallard  and  Marsin  and  the 
Due  de  Villars.  Under  Villars  battles  were  gained  by 
the  French  in  1702  and  1703,  which  opened  to  them  the 
heart  of  Germany,  and  the  important  cities  of  Augsburg 
and  Passau  were  captured.  About  the  same  time  the 
French  army  on  the  Upper  Rhine  and  Moselle  was  suc- 
cessful under  Tallard,  and  Landau  was  taken  at  the  end 
of  1703-  An  insurrection  against  Leopold  had  broken 
out  in  Hungary,  and  when  the  campaign  of  1704  opened, 


122  MODERN  EUROPE 

the  peril  to  the  Empire  was  great.  A  bold  plan  was 
formed  in  the  military  councils  of  Louis  XIV.  In  Flan- 
ders the  French  were  instructed  to  act  on  the  defensive, 
protected  by  their  strong  fortresses,  and  a  part  of  the 
army  was  to  march  from  Flanders,  under  Villeroy,  and 
form  a  junction  in  Germany  with  the  armies  of  Tallard, 
the  Elector  of  Bavaria,  and  Marsin.  The  French  army 
in  Italy  was  to  pass  through  the  Tyrol  into  Austria,  and 
the  whole  vast  host  was  to  unite  upon  the  Danube.  The 
insurrection  in  Hungary  was  to  be  helped,  in  order  to 
distract  the  Emperor's  forces,  and  it  was  believed  that 
a  march  on  Vienna  would  crush  all  resistance  and  end 
the  war. 

At  this  great  crisis  for  Europe  the  genius  of  the 
Duke  of  Marlborough,  the  able  support  given  by  Prince 
Eugene,  and  the  gallantry  of  British  soldiers,  saved  the 
Nations  from  conquest  by  Louis  XIV.  Marlborough 
divined  the  French  plan,  and  in  May,  1704,  started  from 
Flanders  on  his  great  march  to  the  Danube,  bewildered 
Villeroy  and  Tallard  by  his  movements  and  demonstra- 
tions, paralyzed  their  action,  prevented  their  combina- 
tion against  him,  and,  to  sum  up  all,  routed  Tallard  and 
Marsin  at  the  glorious  battle  of  Blenheim  on  August 
I3th,  thereby  completely  delivering  Germany,  and 
changing  the  future  of  Europe  and  the  world.  By  this 
battle,  says  Creasy,  "the  military  ascendency  of  the 
allies  was  completely  established.  Throughout  the  rest 
of  the  war  Louis  fought  only  in  defense.  Blenheim  had 
dissipated  for  ever  his  once  proud  visions  of  almost  uni- 
versal conquest."  After  Blenheim,  Villars  gained  suc- 
cesses against  the  imperial  forces  in  Germany  in  1705- 
1707;  but  the  victories  of  Marlborough  in  Flanders 
caused  him  to  be  summoned  thither,  where  he  was 
defeated  at  Malplaquet. 


AGE  OF  LOUIS  XIV  123 

The  hero  of  the  war  in  Italy  was  the  famous  Prince 
Eugene,  a  son  of  a  Duke  of  Savoy.  He  was  able  both 
as  a  General  and  diplomatist.  Entering  the  Austrian 
service  in  1683,  he  fought  with  distinction  against  the 
Turks,  and  in  1697,  by  a  great  victory  over  them,  became 
renowned  throughout  Europe.  In  this  war  of  the  Span- 
ish Succession,  Eugene  forced  his  way  through  the  Tyrol 
into  Italy,  against  the  French  Marshal,  Catinat,  defeated 
Villeroy  near  Cremona  in  1702,  assisted  Marlborough 
at  Blenheim  in  1704,  and  returned  to  Italy  in  1705.  His 
army  was  defeated  by  the  French  General,  the  Duke  of 
Vendome,  after  a  wound  had  compelled  Prince  Eugene 
to  leave  the  field,  but  soon  afterward,  when  Vendome 
was  recalled,  Eugene  stormed  the  French  lines  at  Turin, 
and  in  a  month  drove  the  enemy  out  of  Italy. 

In  Spain,  the  war  was  conducted  for  Philip  V  by  the 
Dukes  of  Berwick  and  Vendome  against  the  English  and 
allies  under  the  Earl  of  Peterborough,  the  Earl  of  Gal- 
way,  and  General  Stanhope,  and  matters  went  generally 
well  for  France,  so  that  by  the  end  of  1710  Philip  V  was 
left  firmly  seated  on  the  Spanish  throne.  In  October, 
1711,  on  the  death  of  his  brother,  the  Emperor  Joseph, 
who  had  succeeded  his  father,  Leopold,  in  1705,  the 
titular  "Charles  III"  of  Spain  was  elected  Emperor  as 
Charles  VI,  and  all  cause  for  war  as  regarded  Spain  was 
at  an  end.  Philip  V  was  the  first  of  the  Bourbon  line 
that  reigned  in  Spain. 

The  Peace  of  Utrecht  ( 1713)  stipulated  that  the  crowns 
of  Spain  and  France  should  not  be  united  on  the  death 
of  Louis  XIV,  thus  securing  the  main  point  fought  for 
by  the  allies;  that  the  Spanish  Netherlands  should  come 
to  the  Emperor,  along  with  Lombardy,  Naples,  and  Sar- 
dinia; that  the  Duke  of  Savoy  should  have  Sicily;  and 
that  Gibraltar,  as  captured  by  England,  should  remain 


124  MODERN  EUROPE 

in  her  possession.  Thus  was  the  Spanish  monarchy  dis- 
membered, and  the  ambition  of  Louis  XIV  finally  frus- 
trated. The  Treaty  of  Rastadt  in  1714  ended  the  war  as 
between  France,  with  Bavaria,  and  the  Emperor.  In 
1715  Louis  XIV  died. 


CONSTITUTIONAL  STRUGGLE  IN  ENGLAND 

England  played  but  a  small  part  in  the  affairs  of  the 
world  during  the  Seventeenth  Century.  Under  Charles 
II  the  King  was  dominated  by  Louis  XIV,  who, 
through  his  gold  and  the  mistresses  with  whom  he  sup- 
plied the  degenerate  King,  kept  England  in  subjection. 
During  the  rest  of  the  period  civil  war  or  struggles  with 
Parliament  prevented  England  from  interfering  to  any 
great  extent  in  the  affairs  of  the  Continent,  although 
Cromwell's  formidable  armies  made  Europe  tremble  lest 
a  reunited  people  should  interfere  in  their  politics,  as 
they  did  during  the  reigns  of  William  III  and  Anne  to 
Louis'  regret.  The  period  is,  however,  one  of  great 
importance  in  English  history  as  the  founding  of  the 
system  of  real  rule  by  Parliament. 

James  I  (1603-1625)  was  the  first  of  the  Stuart  race. 
He  was  the  son  of  Mary  of  Scotland  by  Lord  Darnley. 
His  mother  had  been  beheaded  by  Elizabeth  in  1587, 
but  when  the  virgin  Queen  died  the  crowns  of  Scotland 
and  England  were  united  in  Mary's  son,  who  was  James 
VI  of  Scotland  and  First  of  England.  He  had  been 
King  in  Scotland  almost  from  his  birth.  On  his  acces- 
sion to  the  crown  of  the  triple  Kingdom,  henceforth 
called  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  he  was  thirty-seven 
years  old.  His  position  in  Scotland  had  been  one  of 
great  difficulty,  largely  owing  to  the  Presbyterian  clergy, 
whose  constant  officious  interference  with  him  had 
grafted  in  his  mind  a  stern  'belief  in  the  merits  of  an 
Episcopal  Church  dependent  upon  the  Crown.  James 
was  acute  in  his  own  limited  way,  learned  and  good- 

135 


iz6  MODERN  EUROPE 

humored,  but  his  character  was  fatally  marred  by  con- 
ceit, obstinacy,  and  indecision.  His  uncouth  manner 
and  ungainly  person  rendered  absurd  his  claim  to  be 
considered  a  supernaturally  gifted  King,  the  "British 
Solomon,"  as  he  loved  to  be  called.  An  honest  belief 
in  his  own  abilities  and  good  intentions  is  always  a 
source  of  weakness  to  a  man  who  has  little  power  of 
work  and  less  appreciation  of  difficulties. 

James  was  and  remained  without  a  policy — though 
a  policy  was  imperatively  necessary  for  one  who  had  to 
deal  with  the  two  great  questions  which  Elizabeth  had 
left  unsolved,  such  as  the  sovereignty  of  the  State  and 
toleration  in  the  Church.  The  first  ten  years  of  the 
reign  were  marked  by  constant  little  failures,  which  were 
hardly  retrieved  by  the  absence  of  any  great  mistakes. 
The  King  failed  to  keep  in  touch  with  his  first  Parlia- 
ment, which  lasted  from  1604  to  1610,  as  completely  as 
he  showed  himself  unable  to  solve  the  increasing 
religious  difficulties  caused  by  the  rise  of  the  Puritans. 
Roman  Catholics  and  Puritans  alike  wished  for  a  relaxa- 
tion of  the  laws  which  bore  hardly  on  them.  James  at 
first  relaxed  the  penalties  under  which  the  Roman  Cath- 
olics suffered,  then  he  grew  frightened  by  the  increase  of 
their  numbers  and  attempted  to  check  it.  The  gun- 
powder plot  (1605)  was  the  result,  followed  by  a  sharper 
persecution  than  ever.  The  Puritans  were  invited  to  a 
conference  with  the  King  at  Hampton  Court,  1604. 
They  no  longer  asked,  as  many  of  them  had  asked  in  the 
beginning  of  Elizabeth's  reign,  to  substitute  the  Presby- 
terian for  the  Episcopal  Government.  All  they  de- 
manded was  to  be  allowed  permission,  while  remaining 
as  Ministers  in  the  Church,  to  dispense  with  certain  cere- 
monies to  which  they  objected.  It  was  the  opinion  of 
Bacon  that  it  would  be  wise  £o  grant  their  request  But 


CONSTITUTIONAL  STRUGGLE  127 

James  thought  otherwise,  as  he  leaned  toward  the  High 
Church  party. 

Elizabeth  had  left  him  absolute  power.  But  a  strong 
and  glorious  hand  is  necessary  to  exert  authority  with- 
out control,  and  under  a  vain  and  weak  Prince  Parlia- 
ment was  no  longer  docile.  Trained  in  a  different 
school  of  politics,  and  succeeding  by  what  it  is  the 
fashion  of  the  time  to  speak  of  as  divine  right,  James 
failed  entirely  to  understand  the  position  of  his  predeces- 
sors. This  misunderstanding  of  his  historical  position 
handed  on  to  his  descendants,  was  the  cause  of  the  dis- 
asters which  attended  the  Stuart  dynasty.  The  contest 
between  personal  monarchy  and  constitutional  govern- 
ment was  terminated  only  by  the  removal  of  the  Stuarts 
from  the  throne.  James  was  often  in  collision  with 
Parliament,  and  for  the  first  time  since  Richard  II  an 
attempt  was  made  to  levy  duties  on  imports  without  the 
consent  of  Parliament.  In  vain  he  sent  five  members  of 
Parliament  to  the  Tower.  The  Commons  refused  him 
subsidies,  and  in  order  to  find  the  money  which  his 
extravagances  rendered  necessary,  he  resorted  to  more 
shameful  practices,  and  offered  for  sale  the  court  offices; 
judicial  functions  were  put  up  at  auction,  and  he  created 
and  sold  titles.  These  ill-gotten  gains  were  squandered 
on  his  favorites,  of  whom  the  most  notorious  was  George 
Villiers,  Duke  of  Buckingham. 

When  the  Thirty  Years'  War  broke  out  James  prof- 
ited by  the  perils  of  Protestantism  in  Germany  to  call  a 
new  Parliament.  But  the  Commons  refused  to  vote 
him  supplies  unless  he  would  accede  to  the  demands  of 
the  Nation,  dismiss  his  favorites,  discontinue  the  grant- 
ing of  monopolies,  reverse  his  Spanish  policy,  and  im- 
pose no  import  or  export  duties  without  consent  of 
Parliament.  The  King  dissolved  Parliament  (1623) 


128  MODERN  EUROPE 

and,  tempted  by  the  promise  of  a  large  dowry,  asked 
the  hand  of  the  Spanish  Infanta  for  his  son.     This  was  a 
new  offense  to  the  English  people.     The  project  failed, 
thanks  to  the  follies  of  Buckingham,  but  the  marriage  of 
the  Prince  of  Wales  to  Henrietta  of  France,  sister  of 
Louis  XIII,  was  almost  as  unpopular,  because  it  seated 
a  Catholic  Princess  on  the  throne  of  England.     James  I 
died  in  1625.     The  most  important  event  of  his  reign 
was  the  new  translation  of  the  Bible,  completed  in  1611. 
Charles   I   (1625-1649)   was  a   decorous,   dignified, 
determined,  and  dangerous  copy  of  his  feebly  tyranni- 
cal father.     He  could  not  rightly  read  the  signs  of  the 
times.      He  failed  to  understand  the  people,   and  he 
raised  a  storm  of  feeling  which  could  not  be  quelled  or 
cajoled,  and  he  paid  the  cruel  penalty  in  defeat,  deposi- 
tion, and  death.     The  favor  shown  the  Catholics  by  the 
King  offended  the  Nation,  and  Buckingham  remained 
the  favorite  of  the  son  as  he  had  been  of  the  father.     The 
struggle  with   Parliament   recommenced   immediately. 
This  Assembly  was  composed  of  cadets  of  great  families, 
and  citizens  of  the  middle  class,  who,  having  acquired 
wealth  under  the  Elizabethan  reign,  filled  all  the  liberal 
professions.     The  custom  was  to  vote  the  right  of  tax 
for  the  duration  of  the  reign.     The  lower  House  refused 
to  grant  it  for  more  than  a  year,  and  Charles,  exasper- 
ated, dissolved  Parliament.      The  Parliament  of  1626 
went  farther.     They  lodged  an  accusation  against  Buck- 
ingham.    They  were  dissolved  again.     In  the  hope  of 
acquiring    some    popularity,    Buckingham    persuaded 
Charles  to  support  the  Protestants  of  France  and  send  a 
fleet  to  the  succor  of  Rochelle.     The  expedition  failed 
through   the   incapacity  of   its  general  (1627).       This 
failure  strengthened  Parliament,  who  obliged  the  King 
to  sanction  the  Petition  of  Rights,  and  then  addressed 


CONSTITUTIONAL  STRUGGLE  129 

him  two  remonstrances,  one  against  the  illegal  imposi- 
tion of  imports,  the  other  against  his  favorite,  whom 
they  blamed  for  the  public  misery.  The  King  dissolved 
Parliament  again,  and  a  fanatic,  John  Felton,  assassin- 
ated Buckingham.  Charles  then  appointed  Archbishop 
Laud  and  the  Count  of  Strafford  to  the  Ministry,  and 
decided  to  govern  without  a  Parliament  in  defiance  of 
the  British  Constitution.  But  with  no  Parliament  there 
were  no  supplies.  Consequently,  he  had  no  means  to 
interfere  in  the  great  events  which  agitated  all  Europe, 
and  this  abstinence  lowered  the  English  Government  in 
the  estimation  of  the  King's  subjects.  Enormous  fines 
were  imposed  on  those  who  opposed  his  plans.  The 
cruelty  of  Laud  against  the  dissenters,  as  in  torturing 
Leighton  and  Prynne,  increased  the  public  discontent, 
which  manifested  itself  by  the  sympathy  it  showed  the 
steadfast  citizen  Hampden  when  he  opposed  the  impost 
of  ship-money  by  illegal  process  (1635).  Scotland 
attacked  by  Laud,  in  its  Presbyterian  faith,  protested  by 
an  insurrection  at  Edinburgh  (1637),  and  formed  the 
association  at  once  political  and  religious  of  the  Cove- 
nant (1638),  which  the  English  army,  led  by  Strafford, 
refused  to  fight  in  1640. 

After  eleven  years  without  a  Parliament  the  King 
confessed  himself  conquered,  and  called  a  fifth  Parlia- 
ment, that  which  became  famous  under  the  name  of  the 
Long  Parliament,  and  which,  going  to  extremes,  took 
away  the  right  of  taxation  and  judicial  authority,  abol- 
ished special  tribunals,  proclaimed  its  own  periodicity, 
and  brought  a  capital  accusation  against  Count  Straf- 
ford, who  was  beheaded  in  1641.  At  the  same  time  a 
formidable  insurrection  broke  out  among  the  Irish,  who 
killed  40,000  Protestants.  When  the  King  asked  for 
means  to  suppress  the  rebels,  Parliament  responded  by 

Voi,,  2—9 


130  MODERN  EUROPE 

bitter  remonstrances,  and  passed  the  militia  bill,  which 
put  the  army  under  its  own  control.  Charles  tried  to 
arrest  the  leaders  of  the  opposition  in  the  midst  of  the 
Assembly,  and  failing,  he  quitted  London  in  the  midst  of 
civil  war. 

Parliament  held  the  capital,  the  large  cities,  the  sea- 
ports, and  the  fleet.  The  King  had  the  support  of  most 
of  the  nobility,  more  accustomed  to  arms  than  the 
middle-class  militia.  In  the  shires  of  the  north  and  west 
the  royalists  or  the  cavaliers  prevailed,  while  the  Parlia- 
mentary party  or  roundheads,  were  in  the  counties  of  the 
middle  and  southeast,  the  richest  sections  of  the  country, 
and  which  close  together  formed  a  belt  around  London. 
At  first  the  advantage  was  with  the  King.  From  Not- 
tingham, where  he  had  raised  his  standard,  he  marched 
on  London.  The  Parliamentary  force,  beaten  at  Edge 
Hill  and  at  Worcester  (1642),  redoubled  its  energy. 
Hampden  raised  a  regiment  of  infantry  among  his  ten- 
ants, friends,  and  neighbors.  Oliver  Cromwell,  who 
then  began  to  come  out  from  his  obscurity,  formed  in 
the  counties  of  the  east,  from  the  sons  of  farmers  and 
squires,  regiments  who  opposed  religious  enthusiasm 
to  the  sentiments  of  honor  which  animated  the  Cavaliers 
and  the  Parliamentary  troops  conquering  at  Newbury, 
allied  themselves  with  the  Scotch  by  a  solemn  covenant. 
Parliament  was  a  coalition  of  parties;  the  Presbyterians, 
though  abolishing  the  hierarchy  in  the  Church,  wished 
to  preserve  it  in  the  State,  while  the  Independents, 
opposed  nobles  as  they  opposed  Bishops,  the  political 
sovereignty  of  the  King  as  well  as  his  religious  suprem- 
acy. The  Puritans  were  divided  into  numerous  sects, 
Levelers,  Anabaptists,  and  Millenarians.  Their  leaders 
were  able  men,  the  greatest  of  which  was  Oliver  Crom- 
well, a  genius  in  statecraft  and  war,  who  forms  the  sub- 


CONSTITUTIONAL  STRUGGLE  131 

ject  of  a  special  article  in  the  volume,  "World's  Great 
Warriors."  With  his  squadrons,  called  Ironsides, 
Cromwell  gained  the  victory  in  the  battle  of  Marston 
Moor  in  1644,  and  then  that  of  Newbury,  which  saved 
the  Revolution.  This  success  helped  the  Independents, 
who,  although  a  minority  in  Parliament,  nevertheless 
succeeded  in  passing  a  bill  of  renunciation,  by  which  the 
deputies  agreed  not  to  exercise  any  public  function,  and 
whose  effect  was  to  deliver  the  army  to  the  control  of 
the  Independents.  Cromwell  then  prosecuted  the  war 
with  vigor.  The  last  army  of  the  King  was  crushed  at 
Naseby  (1645),  while  his  lieutenant,  Montrose,  was 
beaten  by  the  Scotch  Covenanters.  The  King  in 
despair,  went  to  the  camp  of  the  Scotch,  who  sold  him 
to  Parliament  for  £400,000. 

The  Presbyterians  would  willingly  have  treated  with 
their  captive.  Supported  by  the  army,  Cromwell 
"purged"  the  Parliament,  expelling  all  the  Presbyterian 
members,  and  the  Independents  had  the  King  cited 
before  a  court  of  justice,  which  sent  him  to  the  scaffold 
on  January  30,  1649. 

Then  began  the  only  English  Republic.  The  Gov- 
ernment set  up  was  a  Government  by  the  committees  of 
a  Council  of  State,  nominally  supporting  themselves  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  although  the  members  who  still 
retained  their  places  were  so  few  that  the  Council  of 
State  was  sufficiently  numerous  to  form  a  majority  of 
the  House.  Monarchy  and  the  House  of  Peers  were 
formally  abolished.  Ireland,  being  Catholic,  protested 
against  the  revolution,  and  Scotland,  remembering  that 
the  Stuarts  came  of  a  Scottish  race,  rebelled  through 
feelings  of  National  pride.  Resistance  in  Ireland  was 
suppressed  by  Cromwell  in  1649.  Scotland  was  con- 
quered at  the  battle  of  Dunbar,  and  the  son  of  the  late 


132  MODERN  EUROPE 

King,  the  future  Charles  II,  was  overthrown  at  Worces- 
ter (1651),  and  the  country  was  forced  to  recognize  the 
power  of  the  Parliament  at  London.  In  1653  Crom- 
well, realizing  that  the  country  was  tired  of  the  Long 
Parliament,  now  called  the  "Rump,"  drove  out  the  mem- 
bers with  the  aid  of  his  soldiers  and  fastened  a  sign  with 
the  words,  "House  to  Let"  on  the  door.  Cromwell 
saw  that  it  was  necessary  to  have  one  controlling  head 
for  the  State,  and  he  assumed  this  position  as  Lord 
Protector.  He  did  all  that  was  in  his  power  to  do  to 
prevent  his  authority  from  degenerating  into  tyranny. 
He  summoned  two  Parliaments,  of  only  one  House,  and 
with  the  consent  of  the  second  Parliament  he  erected  a 
second  House,  so  that  he  might  have  some  means  of 
checking  the  lower  House  without  constantly  coming 
to  personal  collision  with  it.  In  form  his  Government 
was  better  than  that  of  the  Stuarts,  but  it  had  one  fatal 
defect,  it  rested  on  the  rule  of  the  sword.  The  National 
will  was  opposed  to  him.  But  during  his  administration 
of  affairs  he  brought  about  order  by  the  sword  and  com- 
merce thrived.  England  again  became  respected 
abroad,  and  Spain  and  France  sought  his  alliance.  But, 
like  Elizabeth,  he  became  the  defender  of  Protestantism 
and  threatened  to  punish  the  Pope  if  he  did  not  cease  the 
persecution  of  the  Reformed  Church.  The  Dutch  and 
the  Spanish  were  defeated  by  his  great  Admiral  Blake, 
and  England  became  mistress  of  the  seas.  Cromwell 
died  in  1658  and  his  son,  Richard,  who  succeeded  him, 
retained  power  for  only  a  few  months.  Tyranny  or 
Anarchy  seemed  the  only  choice  for  the  people  of  Eng- 
land, and  when  Monk  dissolved  the  "Rump  Parlia- 
ment," which  had  reassembled  and  formed  a  new  Parlia- 
ment, every  one  knew  that  it  would  recall  the  Stuarts. 


CONSTITUTIONAL  STRUGGLE  133 

So  by  the  choice  of  both  Presbyterians  and  Cavaliers 
Charles  II  became  King  without  conditions. 

Charles  II  (1649-1685)  was  one  of  the  most  worthless 
men  that  ever  filled  a  throne.  Defeat,  exile,  and  pov- 
erty had  wrought  in  him  a  fixed  resolve  not,  as  he  said, 
"to  go  again  upon  his  travels,"  through  the  exercise  of 
such  an  open  and  unendurable  tyranny  as  had  caused  his 
father's  ruin.  Having  known  both  good  and  evil  in 
mankind  he  rejected  all  belief  in  the  one  and  deliberately 
made  his  choice  companion  of  the  other.  Charles  him- 
self was  in  his  heart  a  Catholic,  but  prudence  kept  him 
from  the  course  which  proved  his  brother's  ruin.  His 
own  experience  in  Scotland  and  his  favorite  vices  made 
the  Presbyterian  form  of  worship  and  the  rigid  virtue  of 
the  Puritans  alike  distasteful.  Apart  from  this  he  cared 
nothing  for  religious  quarrels,  and  only  valued  the  Epis- 
copalian system  because  its  votaries  were  strong  sup- 
porters of  the  royal  prerogative.  In  fact  he  was  thor- 
oughly selfish  and  cared  only  for  himself.  Frivolous 
and  debauched,  he  soon  found  himself  forced  through 
need  of  money  to  make  himself  dependent  upon  the 
Commons  for  the  sake  of  receiving  money,  or  upon 
some  foreign  power  for  the  sake  of  receiving  a  pension. 
First  he  sold  Louis  XIV  Mardick  and  Dunkirk,  two  of 
the  conquests  made  by  Cromwell.  After  the  triple  alli- 
ance of  The  Hague,  which  his  people  imposed  upon  him 
in  order  to  check  France  in  the  Netherlands,  he  sold 
himself  to  France,  and  Louis  paid  him  a  pension  of 
2,000,000  francs  until  his  death.  This  was  money  well 
spent,  for  it  kept  England  from  playing  a  prominent  part 
in  international  politics.  Although  Parliament  forced 
Charles  to  join  the  Swedes  and  Dutch  in  1668  to  rescue 
the  Spanish  Netherlands,  and  in  1674  to  oppose  France 


134  MODERN  EUROPE 

and  bring  about  the  peace  of  Nimeguen,  these  profited 
England  nothing.  In  fact  during  the  war  with  the 
United  Provinces  from  1664  to  1667  (just  at  the  time 
when  the  Plague  of  London  happened  in  1665,  and  the 
Great  Fire  of  1666),  the  Dutch  fleet  sailed  up  the  Thames, 
a  thing  which  no  enemy's  fleet  had  done  since  the  time 
of  the  Danes. 

In  domestic  politics  there  are  five  well  marked 
periods  into  which  the  twenty-five  years  of  Charles' 
reign  may  be  divided.  The  first  lasted  only  about  a 
year,  and  witnessed  the  attempt  of  the  first  Parliament 
to  settle  the  outstanding  question  of  religion  and  politics 
on  a  moderate  basis.  Its  place  was  taken  by  the  "Cav- 
alier" Parliament,  which  set  to  work  to  strengthen  the 
revived  monarchy,  reestablish  the  Anglican  Church,  and 
persecute  all  other  creeds.  This  was  during  the  full  tide 
of  the  reaction  against  the  ideals  of  Puritanism.  The 
second  period,  1662-1672,  finds  this  Parliament  gradu- 
ally losing  confidence  in  the  King,  whose  schemes  of 
toleration  it  hated  and  whose  Minister  it  impeached. 
The  King  and  his  councilors,  aided  and  abetted  by  his 
foreign  mistresses,  now  trafficked  with  Louis,  and  there 
gradually  appeared  a  fair  possibility  of  a  complete  reac- 
tion against  the  restored  monarchy.  Two  parties  were 
formed;  one  that  of  Parliament,  whose  religious  policy 
had  been  outraged,  another  the  popular  party,  which 
hated  the  foreign  intrigues  and  persecuting  statutes  to 
which  the  King  had  assented.  The  third  period  (1672- 
1679)  was  the  one  in  which  this  two-fold  opposition 
failed  to  combine  against  the  Crown,  and  Charles  was 
able  to  play  off  one  of  his  opponents  against  the  other. 
It  was  in  1673  that  Parliament,  suspecting  Charles  of 
favoring  Catholicism,  voted  the  Test  Act,  which  obliged 
officials  to  declare  under  oath  that  they  did  not  believe 


CONSTITUTIONAL  STRUGGLE  135 

in  transubstantiation,  and  which  thus  closed  public  em- 
ployment to  Roman  Catholics,  and  their  exclusion  lasted 
until  1829.  The  Popish  plot,  imagined  by  the  wretched 
Titus  Oates,  and  the  memory  of  the  Great  Fire  of  1666, 
which  had  been  attributed  to  the  Catholics,  provoked 
extremely  rigorous  measures,  and  eight  Jesuits  were 
hanged.  In  the  fourth  period  (1679-1681)  a  great 
opposition,  the  beginning  of  the  future  Whig  party,  was 
formed  and  the  attempt  made1  to  oust  the  King's  brother, 
the  Duke  of  York,  an  avowed  Catholic,  from  the  succes- 
sion to  the  Crown.  This  question  divided  the  Nation 
and  the  popular  party,  and  in  the  hands  of  immoderate 
men  wrecked  their  own  cause,  but  during  this  period 
the  Whigs  passed  the  famous  habeas  corpus  act  of  1679, 
which  confirmed  the  law  of  personal  security,  written  in 
the  Magna  Charta,  but  so  often  violated,  and  which  pro- 
vided that  every  prisoner  must  be  examined  by  the 
Judge  within  twenty-four  hours  after  arrest,  and  released 
or  set  at  liberty  under  bail  if  the  proofs  were  insufficient. 
The  last  period  (1681-1685)  found  the  King  secure  and 
triumphant,  free  from  Parliament  and  his  other  enemies. 
Charles  died  in  1685. 

James  II  (1685-1689)  came  to  the  throne  as  a  hero 
of  a  victory  which  others  had  won.  The  Whigs  were 
crushed.  The  attack  on  hereditary  right  was  now  but 
an  episode  in  a  discredited  movement,  the  cry  of  a  fallen 
party.  The  reaction  in  favor  of  monarchy  was  as  com- 
plete at  the  end  of  Charles'  reign  as  it  had  been  in  1660. 
Indeed  it  was,  in  a  sense,  stronger,  for  it  was  the  result 
of  a  double  lesson;  the  threats  of  the  "Exclusionists" 
who  passed  the  Test  Act,  had  reminded  men  of  the 
Anarchy  of  the  Rebellion.  Yet  this  reaction  was  not  at 
the  bottom  so  much  in  favor  of  the  Crown  as  for  the 
cause  of  peace.  Louis  XIV  was  now  paramount  in 


i36  MODERN  EUROPE 

Europe;  all  other  nations  saw  a  menace  to  their  safety 
in  his  illimitable  claims  and  his  unscrupulous  raids. 

James  II  was  fifty-two  years  old.  He  was  a  hard 
worker,  a  man  of  business,  an  experienced  soldier,  sailor, 
and  administrator.  He  was  without  the  lazy  hesitancy 
of  his  grandfather,  and  lacked  the  noble  resignation  of 
his  father,  while  he  possessed  to  the  full  the  obstinate 
belief  in  the  Stuart  mission,  which  had  clogged  the  one 
and  ruined  the  other.  He  reigned  barely  four  years.  In 
that  short  time  he  managed  to  alienate  the  Church  of 
England,  which  had  preached  divine  right  and  non- 
resistance  for  nearly  a  Century;  to  restore  the  Whig 
party  to  a  supremacy  which  lasted  for  upward  of  eighty 
years,  and  finally  to  uproot  his  dynasty  from  its  firm 
hold  in  the  hearts  of  the  English  people.  Under  James 
the  fear  of  a  Roman  Catholic  King  vanquished  the  fear 
of  a  civil  war.  The  reason  is  to  be  sought,  like  the  clew 
to  most  of  the  Seventeenth  Century  problems,  in  reli- 
gion; James  was  a  bigoted  Roman  Catholic,  and  while 
he  persecuted  to  the  death  Presbyterians  in  Scotland, 
he  determined  to  remove  all  restrictions  on  the  political 
and  religious  position  of  the  Roman  Catholics  in  Eng- 
land. The  laws  which  had  been  passed  against  Non- 
conformists of  all  sorts  fell  into  two  clear  divisions. 
First,  the  penal  laws,  which  forbade  and  punished  the 
exercise  of  their  religion;  secondly,  the  Tests,  which 
refused  them  all  political  and  military  office,  unless  they 
denied  by  word  and  deed  their  dearest  beliefs.  The 
former  involved  religious  persecution,  the  latter  political 
death.  The  penal  laws  might  perhaps,  in  a  short  time, 
have  been  mitigated ;  for  they  were  cruel  and  bloody,  and 
many  enlightened  men  disliked  them.  Meanwhile  there 
would  have  been  little  difficulty  in  using  the  "Preroga- 
tive of  Dispensing"  to  pardon  those  who  were  threat- 


CONSTITUTIONAL  STRUGGLE  137 

ened  with  the  more  terrible  punishments.  Gradually 
men  would  have  learned  that  punishment  for  religious 
opinion  is  no  part  of  man's  duty  to  man  or  God.  But 
the  Tests,  on  the  other  hand,  were  considered  by  the 
majority,  in  the  case  of  the  Roman  Catholics,  as  neces- 
sary for  the  National  safety;  and,  in  the  case  of  Protes- 
tant Dissenters,  as  a  useful  means  of  keeping  enemies 
out  of  power.  James'  attempts  to  break  down  the  bar- 
riers which  divided  his  co-religionists  from  the  best  and 
highest  places  in  the  land  are  the  main  features  of  his 
reign.  Like  Charles,  he  relied  on  Louis'  gold  and  on  an 
army;  but,  unlike  Charles,  he  had  no  idea  what  things 
were  possible  and  what  were  not.  James  pursued  his 
schemes  till  an  exasperated  Nation  called  and  welcomed 
his  nephew  and  son-in-law  to  deliver  it.  Then  he  fled. 
No  doubt  toleration  was  a  good  object,  but  Englishmen 
had  reason  to  distrust  Roman  Catholics,  who  aimed  at 
supremacy,  and  had  perpetually  endeavored  since  the 
Reformation  to  overthrow  the  Government  by  conspir- 
acy or  by  open  force.  When  James  found  the  Nation 
resolute  against  his  plan  he  endeavored  to  carry  it  out 
against  their  will  and  their  laws.  Thus  the  revolution 
which  ensued  turned  on  the  old  question — Is  the  King 
a  personal  ruler  and  above  the  law  of  the  land?  This 
question  was  at  last  to  be  answered  in  the  negative. 

A  rebellion  occurred  in  Scotland  during  James' 
reign.  Archibald,  Earl  of  Argyle,  son  of  the  great  Cov- 
enanter who  had  been  beheaded  in  1660,  had  landed  in 
the  Western  Highlands  early  in  1685  to  rouse  his  coun- 
trymen in  defense  of  their  religion;  but  the  scheme  was 
badly  organized,  and  the  rising  was  easily  suppressed. 
A  far  more  dangerous  foe  was  now  in  arms  in  the  South. 
The  Duke  of  Monmouth,  the  natural  son  of  the  late 
King,  had  been  living  in  Holland,  where  he  was  sur- 


138  MODERN  EUROPE 

rounded  by  many  refugees  of  the  old  Exclusion  and 
Whig  party.  Relying  on  his  undoubted  popularity  in 
England  he  landed  at  Lyme  Regis  (June,  1685),  and 
declared  for  a  free  Parliament  and  relief  of  Dissenters. 
He  received  no  support  from  the  Prince  of  Orange,  who 
was  not  likely  to  compromise  his  future  by  such  a 
scheme.  At  Taunton  the  invader  was  proclaimed  as 
King,  but  after  a  brief  moment  of  success  his  followers 
were  cut  to  pieces  on  Sedgmoor  (July  6).  He  was  cap- 
tured and  executed,  after  a  piteous  appeal  to  his  uncle's 
mercy.  His  adherents,  and  all  who  had  been  concerned 
in  the  rising,  were  cruelly  punished  by  the  soldiers  of 
Colonel  Kirke  and  the  judicial  murders  of  Chief- Justice 
Jeffreys,  who  conducted  the  memorable  "Bloody  As- 
size" in  the  southwestern  countries  with  reckless  blood- 
thirstiness. 

In  the  year  1688  came  the  two  events  which  strained 
the  loyalty  of  the  Nation  beyond  its  limits.  The  King's 
order  in  Council  (May,  1688)  that  the  "declaration" 
should  be  publicly  read  in  church  nerved  the  Bishops  to 
a  memorable  resistance.  The  birth  of  an  heir  to  the 
throne  in  June  led  all  classes  of  English  to  look  over-sea 
to  Holland  for  help,  since  a  peaceful  change  upon  James' 
death  was  no  longer  possible,  after  the  appearance  of  a 
Popish  heir.  A  letter  was  sent  to  William  of  Orange, 
inviting  him  to  come  and  deliver  the  land  from  the  gall- 
ing bonds  of  a  "Popish"  Prince.  The  Whig  deliverer 
landed  at  Torbay,  November  5,  1688.  James  had  made 
some  efforts  at  conciliation,  but  to  little  purpose.  The 
Bishops  refused  to  exhort  the  Nation  not  to  resist  their 
King.  In  a  short  while  the  invader  was  joined  by  the 
foremost  Whigs;  and  a  large  part  of  the  army,  under  the 
influence  of  Churchill,  the  future  Duke  of  Marlborough, 
who  had  been  sent  to  Salisbury  to  oppose  William, 


CONSTITUTIONAL  STRUGGLE  139 

deserted  the  royal  cause.  As  the  invader  drew  nearer 
London,  James,  after  sending  his  wife  and  child  to 
France,  endeavored  to  follow  them;  but  he  was  cap- 
tured and  brought  back  to  the  capital.  William  had  not 
claimed  the  Kingdom,  but  had  merely  declared  in  favor 
of  a  free  Parliament  and  Toleration,  with  a  maintenance 
of  the  Tests  and  other  bulwarks  against  Popery.  Noth- 
ing was  settled,  though  bloodshed  had  been  avoided. 
The  next  step  was  critical.  It  was  an  anxious  moment 
for  all.  James  was  told  that  he  could  not  stay  in  Lon- 
don, and  was  allowed  to  select  a  place  of  refuge.  He 
chose  Rochester,  and  promptly  fled  thence  to  France. 
After  much  debate,  Parliament  declared  that  James,  hav- 
ing broken  "the  original  contract  between  King  and 
people  and  withdrawn  himself  out  of  the  Kingdom,  has 
abdicated  the  Government,  and  the  throne  is  thereby 
vacant."  The  scruples  of  the  Tories  had  been  removed 
by  William's  announcement  that  he  would  go  home 
unless  they  made  him  King,  and  that  he  would  not  stay 
here  as  his  wife's  "gentleman  usher."  William  and 
Mary  were  promptly  declared  King  and  Queen  of  Eng- 
land. 

William,  Prince  of  Orange,  and  Stadholder  of  the 
United  Provinces,  was  now  King  of  England,  not  as 
Mary's  husband,  but  together  with  her  as  the  chosen 
successor  of  James.  He  was  just  forty  years  old,  and 
had  profited  by  his  experience  in  a  way  that  was  to  make 
him  able  to  rule  England  and  play  the  foremost  part  in 
European  politics.  It  has  been  said  that  William  was 
never  young.  He  had  been  born  and  bred  amid 
intrigues,  revolutions,  plots,  and  had  grown  to  manhood 
with  the  roar  of  French  guns  in  his  ears.  He  was  cold 
and  hard  in  manner,  had  wretched  health,  and  was  per- 
sonally unattractive.  His  ambition  had  been  to  make 


HO  MODERN  EUROPE 

himself  and  his  beloved  Holland  a  power  in  Europe,  and 
his  chance  had  been  so  opportunely  seized  that  he  hoped 
to  add  the  name  and  resources  of  England  to  that 
League  of  Augsburg,  which  the  restless  Louis  XIV  had 
roused  against  himself  in  1686.  The  Pope,  the  num- 
erous German  Princes,  the  Emperor,  and  the  King  of 
Spain  had  long  been  anxious  to  check  the  daring  mon- 
arch who  swooped  down  now  on  the  Pyrenees,  now  on 
Italy,  now  on  the  Rhine  or  the  Sambre.  If  William, 
backed  by  the  English  Nation  and  the  English  navy, 
could  lead  the  way,  there  would  be  some  chance  of  mak- 
ing headway  even  against  so  great  a  power  as  that 
wielded  by  Louis. 

The  reign  of  William  may  be  divided  into  five 
periods.  The  first  two  years  (1689-1691)  were  occupied 
with  the  settlement  of  Scotland  and  Ireland,  for  James 
and  Louis  made  a  great  attempt  to  keep  William  out  of 
their  path  by  giving  him  work  in  Ireland.  This  expedi- 
ent would,  if  successful,  have  tied  the  King's  hands  very 
effectually.  But  all  fears  of  a  Jacobite  Ireland  were 
allayed  by  the  battle  of  Boyne.  From  1692  to  1695 
William  struggled  unsuccessfully  with  his  greatest  foe 
on  the  Continent,  while  he  contrived  to  keep  his  Gov- 
ernment efficient  at  home  by  intrusting  more  and  more 
power  to  the  Whigs.  The  death  of  Mary  marks  the 
close  of  this  second  period.  The  third  consists  of  two 
years  (1695-1697),  in  which  the  power  of  France  was 
successfully  tired  out,  while  the  continued  domination 
of  the  Whigs  secured  a  strong  war  policy.  With  the 
Peace  of  Ryswick  (1697)  the  Nation,  led  by  the  Tories, 
ceased  to  support  William;  and  in  the  fourth  period 
(1697-1701)  his  Parliaments  became  more  and  more 
unmanageable,  while  on  the  Continent  the  tardy  death 
of  the  Spanish  King  raised  the  greatest  political  problem 


CONSTITUTIONAL  STRUGGLE  141 

of  the  age,  and  started  the  wars  of  the  Spanish  succes- 
sion. Just  as  the  French  King  was  about  to  sieze  all 
those  gains  which  the  English  jealousy  against  Wil- 
liam was  pouring  into  his  hands,  the  death  of  James  II 
occurred.  The  recognition  of  his  son  as  King  of  Eng- 
land, which  Louis  promptly  made,  once  more  stung  the 
English  into  a  warlike  temper.  The  fifth  period  (1701- 
1702),  therefore,  shows  William  and  his  adopted  country 
again  at  one,  but  with  the  last  and  fiercest  struggle  still 
to  come.  At  this  moment  William  died. 

Anne  (1702-1714),  the  younger  daughter  of  James 
II  by  his  first  marriage,  became  Queen  on  William's 
death  by  the  express  terms  of  the  act  of  settlement  of 
1701.  She  was  likely  to  be  popular,  for  she  was  a 
Stuart,  and  yet  a  sincere  member  of  the  Anglican 
Church.  The  Tories  would  see  in  her  a  representative 
of  the  family  whose  misdeeds  they  were  so  anxious  to 
forgive.  The  Whigs  would  approve  of  a  Queen  suc- 
ceeding by  laws  framed  against  the  enemies  of  England's 
liberties.  She  was  a  good  woman,  without  much  will  of 
her  own.  Thus  it  was  easy  to  influence  her.  And  it 
was  necessary  for  those  who  wished  to  secure  power  to 
do  so,  for  she  retained  a  good  deal  of  the  importance  in 
politics  which  had  belonged  to  her  predecessors.  She 
sat  in  the  Council,  and  the  Ministers  were  her  nominees, 
or  the  nominees  of  those  who  worked  upon  her  feelings. 

The  Constitution  was,  as  we  have  seen,  changing. 
A  time  was  coming  when  the  sovereign  would  be  obliged 
to  chose  Ministers  trusted  by  the  Commons  and  the 
country.  The  existence  of  parties  had  forced  William 
to  do  so.  This  was  becoming  even  more  necessary  in 
Anne's  reign.  Indeed,  her  greatest  change  of  Ministers 
in  1710  was  the  result  of  a  National  and  party  agitation, 
which  carried  the  Queen  along  with  it.  This  presents  a 


143  MODERN  EUROPE 

great  contrast  to  the  early  days  of  the  period,  when  the 
Stuart  Kings  had  endeavored  to  maintain  Ministers  in 
opposition  to  the  movement  of  the  time.  The  extension 
of  this  system  was  destined  in  the  end  to  solve  the  prob- 
lem of  English  Government.  But  meanwhile  the  fact 
remains  that  Anne  was  sufficiently  her  own  mistress  to 
be  unwilling  to  make  changes  except  under  pressure. 
Thus  her  easily-led  nature  became  a  most  important 
political  matter.  Her  personal  influence  was  perhaps 
heightened  by  the  fact  that  her  husband,  Prince  George 
of  Denmark,  was  a  man  of  no  political  weight.  There 
was  "nothing  in  him,"  according  to  Charles  II,  who  pro- 
fessed to  have  "tried  him  drunk  and  tried  him  sober." 
The  reign  may  be  divided  into  three  periods.  In  the 
first  (1702-1708),  the  European  was  foremost.  The 
National  enthusiasm  set  the  war  going,  and  the  genius 
of  Marlborough,  the  hero  of  Blenheim,  made  it  success- 
ful. The  Queen  was  completely  under  the  influence  of 
the  wife  of  her  great  commander;  the  Whigs  secured  a 
majority  in  Parliament,  and  the  Ministers  were  chosen 
from  among  them.  Louis  was  beaten  on  all  sides  and 
sued  for  peace,  which  was  at  first  refused.  The  union 
of  England  and  Scotland  was  made  (1707)  under  the 
title  of  Great  Britain.  In  the  second  period  (1708-1710) 
the  strife  of  the  parties  at  home  is  all-important. 
Wearied  by  the  long  war,  the  Nation  refused  to  support 
Marlborough,  as  they  had  refused  to  support  William. 
The  danger  seemed  over.  The  influence  of  the  Duchess 
was  undermined,  and  Queen  Anne  ceased  to  take 
pleasure  in  the  society  of  a  "brawling  woman  in  a  wide 
house."  A  Tory  reaction  occurred.  Churchmen  raised 
their  voices  against  toleration,  and  the  foolish  prosecu- 
tion of  one  of  them  gave  away  the  dignity  of  the  Gov- 
ernment, who>  their  popularity  being  already  gone, 


CONSTITUTIONAL  STRUGGLE  143 

could  not  long  hope  to  retain  office.  The  struggle 
ended  in  a  victory  for  the  Tories,  and  thus  incidentally 
for  the  principle  of  party  government.  A  Tory  Ministry 
was  soon  appointed,  and  in  the  third  period  (1710-1714) 
the  Revolution  settlement  trembled  in  the  balance. 
Peace  was  made  with  France,  a  peace  perhaps  necessary, 
perhaps  just,  yet  in  terms  far  less  glorious  than  Eng- 
land's victorious  armies  were  considered  to  have  earned. 
The  Tory  Ministers  plotted  for  a  Tory  triumph,  perhaps 
for  a  Stuart  restoration.  The  death  of  Anne,  however, 
found  this  Ministry  divided  by  a  quarrel  between  its 
leaders,  and  the  Whigs  were  able  to  obtain  sufficient 
influence  in  the  Council  to  secure  the  succession  of 
George  I. 


SUPPRESSION  OF  THE  OTTOMAN  POWER 

During  much  of  the  Seventeenth  Century  the  Ottoman 
power  was  at  war  with  Venice,  which  at  this  time,  though 
the  Republic  was  in  her  decline,  was  the  chief  champion 
of  Christendom  against  the  Moslem.  After  a  war  of 
twenty-four  years  (1645-1669)  the  Turks  succeeded  in 
making  themselves  masters  of  the  island  of  Candia  or 
Crete,  which  they  have  kept  ever  since.  The  siege  of 
the  chief  town,  Candia,  lasted  for  over  twenty  years,  and 
is  one  of  the  longest  in  history.  Volunteers  came  from  all 
parts  of  Europe  to  aid  the  Venetians,  the  Pope  sending 
troops  and  money,  Malta  supplying  soldiers  headed  by  her 
Knights  of  St.  John,  and  Louis  XIV  and  the  Duke  of 
Savoy  also  taking  part  with  auxiliaries.  It  was,  in  fact, 
another  crusade  against  the  infidels,  but  the  Christians 
were  forced  to  surrender  when  they  were  thinned  by 
slaughter  and  disease,  and  the  Turkish  cannon  had  laid 
the  city  in  ruins  and  battered  down  the  walls.  On  this, 
as  on  other  occasions,  the  quarrels  and  jealousies  of  the 
Christian  powers  of  Europe  prevented  a  combination 
which  would  soon  have  crushed  Turkish  aggression.  The 
Turks  lost  nearly  120,000  and  the  Christians  over  30,000 
men;  fifty-six  assaults  and  ninety-six  sorties  were  made; 
1,645  mines  were  sprung  by  the  assailants  and  defenders; 
over  half  a  million  of  cannon  shot  were  fired  by  the  for- 
tress; and  9,000  tons  of  lead  were  used  for  musket  balls 
by  the  Christians. 

In  1684  the  Venetians,  aided  by  the  Emperor  Leopold, 
assailed  the  Turks  in  Greece,  and  conquered  the  whole 
of  the  Peloponnesus.  During  this  war  in  Greece,  in  the 

144 


SUPPRESSION  OF  OTTOMAN  POWER      145 

Venetian  attack  upon  Athens,  the  famous  Parthenon,  the 
glory  of  the  city  and  of  ancient  Grecian  architecture,  was 
greatly  damaged  in  1687  by  an  explosion  of  gunpowder, 
the  Turks  having,  on  their  capture  of  Athens  in  1456, 
turned  what  was  then  a  Christian  church,  first  into 
a  mosque,  and  then  into  a  magazine. 

Before  this  the  Turks  had  been  encouraged,  by  the 
discontent  of  Hungary  with  Austrian  rule  and  her  rebel- 
ion  against  the  Emperor  Leopold,  to  attack  Western 
Christendom  in  great  force.  In  1683  the  Ottoman  army, 
along  with  the  Hungarian  insurgents,  marched  in  irre- 
sistible strength  on  Vienna.  Columns  of  smoke  from 
burning  villages  flanked  the  advance  of  the  destroying 
Turks,  and  in  July  they  encamped  for  the  second  time 
before  the  walls  of  Vienna.  The  Emperor  Leopold  and 
the  court  had  fled,  leaving  a  garrison  of  about  10,000  men, 
while  the  Duke  of  Lorraine,  with  a  large  cavalry  force, 
kept  watch  outside  on  the  movements  of  the  enemy.  A 
Turkish  host  of  200,000  men  surrounded  the  city,  and  a 
fierce  resistance  was  made  by  the  Viennese  to  the  assault- 
ing columns,  when  breaches  had  been  made  in  the  fortifi- 
cations. For  over  forty  days  the  efforts  of  the  Turks  were 
vain,  and  their  commander,  the  Grand  Vizier,  Kara  Mus- 
tafa, resorted  to  the  explosion  of  huge  mines  under  the 
ramparts.  The  Turks  slowly  gained  ground.  By  the  first 
days  of  September,  1683,  Vienna  was  in  extremity,  but 
relief  was  now  at  hand. 

During  most  of  the  Seventeenth  Century  Poland  had 
been  declining.  She  had  lost  territory  to  Sweden  and  to 
Russia,  and  been  greatly  weakened  by  internal  dissensions 
and  mismanagement,  especially  by  the  absurd  system  of 
veto  in  her  Diet  or  political  assembly,  which  allowed  the 
vote  of  a  single  deputy  to  negative  a  proposal  on  which 

all  the  others  were  agreed.    A  parting  gleam  of  glory  for 
Voi,.  2 — io 


H6  MODERN  EUROPE 

Poland  came  in  the  reign  of  her  brave  King,  John  Sobieski, 
who  ruled  from  1674  to  1696.  To  him  Leopold  had  now 
appealed  for  help  against  the  Moslem,  and  Sobieski,  hurry- 
ing forward,  had  joined  the  German  army  under  the  Duke 
of  Lorraine,  with  whom  the  young  Prince  Eugene  was 
serving.  The  Turkish  army  had  been  much  diminished 
and  discouraged,  but  now  faced  round,  with  its  back  to 
the  city,  to  meet  the  shock.  The  result  was  decisive.  On 
September  12,  1683,  Sobieski  and  his  allies  totally 
defeated  the  Turks,  and  raised  the  siege  of  Vienna.  When 
the  famous  Janizaries  gave  way  an  utter  rout  of  the  Otto- 
man force  ensued,  and  the  last  chance  of  a  Turkish  con- 
quest of  Central  Europe  had  passed  away.  A  complete 
and  disastrous  overthrow  had  taught  the  Turks  at  last 
that  in  future  it  would  be  their  task  to  maintain  them- 
selves, if  they  could,  in  Europe  against  Christian  aggres- 
sion and  retaliation,  and  to  abandon  dreams  of  further 
permanent  progress  for  their  arms.  The  Florentine 
poet,  Vincenzo  da  Filicaja,  celebrated  the  exploit 
of  John  Sobieski  and  the  deliverance  of  Christen- 
dom in  verse.  The  forces  of  Austria,  Poland,  and 
Venice  now  assailed  the  Ottoman  Empire  on  three 
sides,  and  the  Turks,  rallying  from  their  defeat, 
resisted  with  their  usual  tenacity  and  valor.  In  1686, 
however,  a  combined  Christian  force  stormed  Buda; 
in  1687  the  Turks  were  routed  in  the  second  battle  of 
Mohacs,  on  the  very  field  of  their  Sultan  Soliman  II's 
great  triumph,  and  Hungary's  fatal  defeat,  in  1526.  The 
fortresses  between  the  Danube  and  the  Drave  were  grad- 
ually taken  by  the  Christian  allies;  and  though  the  Turks 
managed  to  check  Sobieski  himself  on  the  Moldavian  bor- 
der, they  needed  their  whole  strength  to  hold  their  own 
on  the  Danube.  In  1688  Belgrade  was  captured,  after  an 
assault  in  which  Prince  Eugene  shared;  in  1689  the  Impe- 


SUPPRESSION  OF  OTTOMAN  POWER      147 

rialists  drove  the  Turks  before  them,  and  then  came  alter- 
nations of  success  until  Prince  Eugene,  now  an  experi- 
enced leader,  gave  the  Turks  a  crushing  defeat  at  Zenta, 
in  the  south  of  Hungary,  on  the  Theiss,  in  1697. 

In  1699  the  Treaty  of  Carlowitz  gave  back  Hungary 
and  Transylvania  permanently  to  Austria;  Venice  kept 
Dalmatia  and  the  Morea,  Poland  recovered  some  lost  ter- 
ritory. This  was  the  first  time  that  the  Ottoman  Govern- 
ment had  met  the  plenipotentiaries  of  Christian  Europe  in 
congress,  and  the  first  treaty  in  which  the  Turkish  frontier 
was  made  to  recede.  The  Turks  were  now,  once  for  all, 
compelled  to  take  a  responsible  place  in  the  system  of 
Christendom,  which  they  had  so  deeply  injured,  and  had 
to  the  last  insulted  and  endangered.  The  treaty  of  Carlo- 
witz proclaimed  far  and  wide  that  the  haughty  pretensions 
and  aggressive  policy  which  had  so  long  distinguished  the 
Ottoman  State  had  ceased  to  be  endurable  in  the  civilized 
world. 


MENTAL  ACTIVITY  AND  PROGRESS 

Violence  of  the  Sixteenth  and  Seventeenth  Centuries 
led,  among  Protestants  as  well  as  among  Catholics,  to  a 
reaction,  which  tended  to  the  greater  influence  of  Chris- 
tianity. The  Protestants,  divided  as  they  were,  at  least 
agreed  upon  the  necessity  for  personal  devotion,  for  living 
faith,  for  obedience  to  the  maxims  of  the  Bible  and  the 
Gospel.  Although  less  visible  in  its  external  demonstra- 
tions, religious  sentiment  was  as  deeply  imprinted  among 
the  Puritans  as  among  the  Anglicans;  among  the  Calvin- 
ists  as  strongly  as  among  the  Lutherans.  Society  in  Eng- 
land, Germany,  Holland,  and  Switzerland  even  assumed 
a  religious  tone,  and  affected  a  severity  which  has  not  yet 
disappeared,  although  greatly  softened  in  our  own  days. 
Assiduous  attendance  at  church,  the  taste  for  the  perusal 
of  the  Bible,  the  passion  for  theological  and  moral  discus- 
sions, the,  at  all  events  outward,  rigidity  of  manners,  the 
strict  observance  of  the  Sabbath  rest,  imposed  by  public 
opinion  quite  as  much  as  by  the  civil  authorities,  distin- 
guished Protestant  countries,  where  religion  concentrated 
in  the  soul  assumed  an  importance  that  heightened  the 
earnestness  and  gravity  of  the  populations  of  the  North. 
Protestantism  imprinted  its  seal  upon  the  English,  the 
Americans  and  the  Dutch,  the  Swiss  and  the  Germans.  It 
became  a  national  characteristic,  it  is  a  part  of  true  patriot- 
ism, and  rules  society,  which,  in  these  nations  more  than 
others,  glories  in  the  name  of  Christian. 

Catholicism  in  the  countries  where  it  still  predomi- 
nated devoted  itself,  without  renouncing  its  external  pomp, 
to  returning  to  a  more  serious  practice  of  the  Christian 

148 


MENTAL  ACTIVITY  AND  PROGRESS       149 

virtues.  New  religious  orders,  founded  in  the  Sixteenth 
and  Seventeenth  centuries,  endeavored — some,  like  the 
Capuchins  and  the  Feuillants — to  reestablish  the  severe 
rules  of  the  old  mendicant  orders;  others — like  the  Con- 
gregation of  the  Oratory  and  the  Reformed  Benedictines 
of  Saint  Maur — to  revive  learning  at  the  same  time  as 
piety  among  the  clergy. 

But  although  the  Seventeenth  Century  was  remark- 
able for  a  spirit  of  charity,  which  contrasted  with  the  still 
prevalent  intolerance,  it  affected  no  improvement  in  the 
relations  between  the  nations.  The  Thirty  Years'  war  saw 
the  formation  of  great  armies,  and  the  exploits  of  a  num- 
ber of  generals  who  rivaled  each  other  in  skill  and  cour- 
age. Gustavus  Adolphus  revived  strategy  and  tactics. 
His  bold  and  sudden  marches,  the  way  in  which  he  mar- 
shaled his  troops  on  an  improved  system  while  extending 
his  lines,  the  use  he  made  of  his  cavalry,  which  then  formed 
the  greater  part  of  the  armies,  the  topographical  knowl- 
edge with  which  he  placed  his  artillery,  gave  birth  to  mili- 
tary art.  His  reforms  were  adopted  everywhere.  The 
heavy  horse  soldiery  was  reformed  and  lances  taken  away ; 
it  was  separated  from  the  arquebusiers,  who  formerly  min- 
gled in  its  ranks  and  who  became  dragoons.  Nearly  all 
body  armor  was  abandoned  and  the  men  retained  only 
their  open  helmets  and  breastplates;  they  then  became 
cuirassiers.  The  cavalry,  posted  on  the  wings,  recon- 
noitered  the  front  and  scoured  the  country;  it  had  found 
its  true  mission.  The  old  bands  of  infantry  were  divided 
into  regiments,  the  arquebus  was  replaced  by  the  musket, 
the  foot  soldiers  were  relieved  of  the  iron  corselet,  which 
hindered  their  march.  The  close  order  of  four  ranks  deep 
was  still  retained,  but  it  was  a  substantial  improvement 
upon  the  old  irregular  masses  that  were  so  difficult  to 
move.  Discipline  was  established  and  uniforms  were  in- 


150  MODERN  EUROPE 

troduced.  Louvois,  the  Secretary  of  State  in  the  wars  of 
Louis  XIV,  organized  the  French  army,  diminished  with- 
out suppressing  the  pikemen,  formed  files  of  soldiers  to 
throw  grenades — grenadiers — substituted  the  rifle  for  the 
musket,  and  the  rifle,  completed  by  the  bayonet,  became  the 
most  used  weapon  of  the  modern  times.  He  ordered 
that  the  men  should  walk  in  step,  and  forced  the  noble 
officers  to  serve  before  commanding;  to  study  before 
directing.  He  furnished  Louis  XIV  with  admirable 
armies,  numbering  400,000  men,  provided  with  stores  of 
provisions,  ammunition,  clothes,  and  all  the  necessary  bag- 
gage for  such  large  numbers. 

At  the  same  time  sieges  became  scientific.  Fabert 
invented  parallel  trenches  at  the  siege  of  Stenay  (1654), 
and  Vauban  and  Cohorn  perfected  the  art  of  attack  and 
defense  of  cities  and  positions.  The  old  Roman  and  feudal 
walls  became  useless,  since  balls  could  form  breaches  in 
them,  and  bombs  could  be  dropped  even  into  the  city. 
Vauban  lowered  the  fortifications,  making  them  level  with 
the  ground,  and  relied  for  protection  upon  a  simple  earthen 
wall  preceded  by  a  moat  and  interrupted  by  so  many  angles 
and  zigzags  that  it  was  impossible  to  approach  it  from  the 
front;  the  wall  sheltered  powerful  batteries,  which  kept 
the  assailants  at  a  distance;  citadels  or  forts,  often 
designed  in  the  form  of  stars,  also  defended  important 
places.  The  science  of  military  engineering  was  created. 

The  Seventeenth  Century  continued  and  extended  the 
movement  which  urged  European  Nations  toward  naviga- 
tion, industry,  and  commerce.  But  the  chief  actors  had 
changed.  The  Spanish  annexation  of  Portugal  in  1580, 
by  attaching  the  Portuguese  colonies  to  a  monarchy  in 
decadence,  led  to  their  ruin.  Spain,  exhausted  by  the 
ambition  of  Philip  II  and  the  insensate  despotism  of  his 
successors,  in  spite  of  its  vast  colonial  Empire,  through 


MENTAL  ACTIVITY  AND  PROGRESS         151 

bad  administration  had  become,  from  the  most  influential, 
one  of  the  weakest  powers  in  Europe.  The  Dutch  replaced 
the  Portuguese  in  the  markets  of  Hindustan;  settled  in 
Ceylon ;  took  possession  of  the  Moluccas ;  then  of  the  mag- 
nificent islands  of  Sunda,  Java,  Sumatra,  Celebes, 
Amboyna,  and  Timor.  In  the  Island  of  Java  they  founded 
a  city  (1619),  to  which  they  proudly  gave  their  old  his- 
torical name  Batavia,  the  city  of  the  Batavians.  From 
1609  they  traded  with  Japan,  and  to  secure  the  road,  did 
not  neglect  the  necessary  settlements  on  the  coast  of 
Africa,  which  led  to  the  formation  of  the  West  India  Com- 
pany (1621).  This  company  also  traded  with  America. 
The  Dutch  had  occupied  several  points  on  the  Western 
coast  of  North  America,  and  founded  (1614)  New 
Amsterdam,  on  the  site  now  occupied  by  New  York.  In 
the  Seventeenth  Century,  they  possessed  a  merchant  fleet 
which  surpassed  all  the  combined  fleets  of  other  countries. 
Amsterdam  replaced  Antwerp,  ruined  by  the  closing  of  the 
Scheldt.  She  became  the  Northern  Venice.  The  Dutch 
were  now  the  only  European  importers  of  spice,  cinnamon, 
sandal-wood,  indigo,  Chinese  tea,  lacquer,  Japanese  por- 
celain and  silk.  In  the  Baltic  they  had,  through  competi- 
tion, ruined  the  commerce  of  the  Hanseatic  cities.  All  the 
Continental  peoples  were  their  tributaries,  and  the  Zealand 
fishers,  so  long  obscure  and  poor,  now  exchanged  their  bar- 
rels of  herrings  for  barrels  of  gold. 

The  English  were  the  chief  rivals  of  the  Dutch  in  these 
enterprises.  In  the  Seventeenth  Century  the  English  col- 
onies were  founded,  and  with  extraordinary  labor  the  set- 
tlers cleared  the  forests  of  New  England,  dug  the  soil, 
worked  the  mines,  and  replaced  the  solitude  by  admirably 
cultivated  plantations  and  industrious  towns.  But  how- 
ever inclined  the  English  might  be  to  imitate  the  Dutch, 
they  were  at  first  unable  to  rival  them.  Cromwell  forced 


152  MODERN  EUROPE 

them  to  make  the  attempt.  By  the  Navigation  Act 
(1651),  completed  under  Charles  II  in  1660,  the  coasting 
trade  was  reserved  for  English  vessels,  as  was  all  trade 
with  English  colonies.  By  a  single  blow  the  Dutch  found 
themselves  excluded  from  the  ports  and  colonies.  They 
were  still  more  injured  by  the  clauses  in  the  Navigation 
Act  which  provided  that  the  produce  of  Asia,  Africa,  and 
America  could  be  carried  only  in  English  ships.  The 
European  Nations  could  import  only  the  produce  of  their 
own  soil  and  labor  to  England.  Now  the  Dutch  had  not 
sufficient  agricultufe  nor  industries  to  nourish  their  com- 
merce. They  were  only  commission  merchants,  the  car- 
riers of  the  sea,  as  they  were  called.  These  provisos  com- 
pletely ruined  their  trade  with  England,  and  they  only 
submitted  to  them  after  two  sanguinary  and  disastrous 
wars.  England  succeeded  in  depriving  Holland  of  the 
empire  of  the  seas,  and  after  the  Revolution  of  1688  the 
momentary  union  of  the  two  countries,  under  the  rule  of 
William  III,  was  naturally  unfavorable  to  Holland,  the 
less  important  of  the  two  States. 

The  improvement  of  the  material  conditions  of  life, 
security,  tranquillity  protected  by  a  power  which  no  one 
dreamed  of  disputing,  the  luxury  increasing  with  industry, 
all  modified  the  aspects  of  society.  The  nobles,  instead  of 
fighting,  visited  each  other.  The  court,  peopled  with 
noblemen,  now  rivals  only  in  elegance  and  deportment, 
gave  the  tone  to  the  city;  women  asserted  their  empire, 
enforced  politeness,  and  the  chivalric  as  it  softened  ended 
in  gallantry.  Chiefly  in  France,  but  also  in  Italy,  from 
the  reign  of  Louis  XIII,  the  intercourse  of  society  and 
art  of  conversation  were  sedulously  cultivated,  and  the 
assemblies  and  drawing-rooms  almost  recalled  the  Acad- 
emy of  Athens  in  the  days  of  Greek  literature  and  philo- 
sophy. The  Hotel  de  Rambouillet  became  the  model  of 


MENTAL  ACTIVITY  AND  PROGRESS        153 

these  learned  but  not  pedantic  assemblies,  where  French 
society  became  refined,  displayed  its  gayety,  and  purified 
its  language.  Conversation  became  an  important  busi- 
ness, and  woman's  quick,  delicate  intelligence  gave  a  lively 
fascination,  a  refined,  agreeable  tone  to  conversation,  so 
that  it  won  admiration  for  the  French  language  and  made 
it  the  fashionable  tongue  in  almost  every  court  of  Europe. 

Pierre  Corneille  (1606-1684)  rediscovered,  we  can 
truly  say,  the  ancient  tragedies.  More  restrained,  more 
sober  than  Shakespeare,  who  never  bound  himself  to  any 
rules,  more  concentrated  than  the  Spaniards,  from  whom 
he  borrowed  the  subject  of  his  first  masterpiece,  "The  Cid" 
(1636),  he  arranged  his  plays  in  the  triple  unity  of  time, 
scene,  and  action,  without  too  much  injuring  their  prob- 
ability, and  increased  their  interest  by  the  rapid  succession 
of  the  scenes.  Though  Corneille  cannot  compare  with  the 
Greek  tragedians,  nor  with  Shakespeare  in  the  wide  range 
of  his  power,  nor  even  with  the  Spanish  dramatists  in  the 
rich  beauty  of  their  verse,  his  plays  are  admirably  adapted 
for  the  stage.  He  has  real  enthusiasm  for  the  heroic  vir- 
tues and  for  patriotism  as  then  understood.  As  rhetorical 
declamation  in  verse  his  pieces  have  never  been  surpassed. 
They  give  a  dignity  to  every  worthy  actor  of  them,  and  it 
is  probably  owing  to  them  that  the  stage  in  France  has 
had  a  greater  influence,  and  exercised  more  power  than 
in  any  other  country,  and  that,  too,  even  when  actors  were 
excommunicated  by  the  Church. 

At  the  same  time  that  tragedy  was  influencing  and 
elevating  the  heart  and  soul,  ancient  philosophy  reappeared 
to  occupy  the  intellect.  One  year  after  Corneille  had 
written  the  first  masterpiece  of  dramatic  art,  Descartes 
(1596-1650)  published  the  first  book  on  philosophy. 

Racine,  Moliere,  Boileau,  three  friends  and  three  of  the 
writers  most  honored  by  Louis  XIV,  possessed  very  dif- 


i54  MODERN  EUROPE 

ferent  styles.  Racine  (1639-1699)  divides  with  Corneille 
the  glory  of  French  classical  tragedy.  Inferior  in  force 
and  declamation,  his  verse  is  more  flowing  and  harmoni- 
ous; he  deals  better  with  the  softer  passions.  If  we  except 
the  Spaniards,  he  alone  has  succeeded  in  making  religious 
and  Biblical  themes  acceptable  on  the  modern  stage. 
Moliere  (1622-1673)  may  be  regarded  as  the  creator  of 
French  comedy,  in  spite  of  Corneille's  "Menteur."  Far 
higher  than  either  Racine  or  Corneille,  he  is  supreme  in 
his  own  art  and  within  his  limits.  For  the  only  pure  com- 
edy which  has  equaled  that  of  Moliere  we  must  go  back 
to  the  Greeks.  He  is  unrivaled  in  modern  Europe. 
Although  Boileau  ( 1636-171 1 )  cannot  be  admitted  to  the 
same  rank  as  his  two  friends,  he  was  a  laborious  poet  and 
a  better  critic.  His  influence  over  poetry  ruled  in  Europe 
down  to  the  beginning  of  the  present  Century.  Through 
Pope  it  prevailed  in  England  to  the  age  of  Byron  and  of 
Wordsworth,  who  mark  a  new  school.  He  is  the  head  of 
the  Classic  in  opposition  to  the  Romantic  school. 

But  the  inspiration  of  Christianity  was  chiefly  demon- 
strated in  the  orators  of  the  pulpit :  Bourdaloue,  Bossuet, 
Fenelon.  Bourdaloue  (1632-1704)  was  only  a  sermon 
writer,  and  his  reputation  never  attained  the  height  of  that 
of  the  two  other  preachers.  He  was  too  logical,  too 
formal,  and  too  special.  Bossuet  (1627-1704)  and  Fen- 
elon (1651-1711)  were  of  wider  genius.  The  former, 
orator,  historian,  philosopher,  filled  the  pulpit  with  the 
most  sublime  eloquence,  particularly  in  his  funeral  ora- 
tions. He  threw  a  penetrating  glance  over  the  past  in  his 
"Discourse  upon  Universal  History,"  and  reconciled 
philosophy  with  the  religion  in  his  "Treatise  on  the 
Knowledge  of  God  and  One's  Self."  Fenelon  also  showed 
himself  a  philosopher  in  his  treatise  on  the  "Existence  of 
God";  he  was  not  an  historian,  but  his  romance  of  "Tele- 


MENTAL  ACTIVITY  AND  PROGRESS        155 

machus"  revived  the  primitive  ages  of  Greece,  and  his 
sermons  were  masterpieces  of  grace  and  unction.  In  addi- 
tion, in  his  ideas  on  education,  Fenelon  was  in  advance 
of  his  time.  The  Telemaque  proves  that  its  author,  in  a 
time  of  tyranny  and  toadyism,  had  discovered  the  great 
and  now  familiar  truth  that  governments  exist,  and  have 
a  right  to  exist,  only  for  the  good  of  the  people,  and  that 
the  many  are  not  made  for  the  use  and  enjoyment  of  one. 
This  glorious  originality  of  spirit,  contrasted  with  that 
which  pervades  the  French  literature  of  the  age  of  Louis 
XIV,  was  in  reality  "the  first  faint  dawn  of  a  long  and 
splendid  day  of  intellectual  light,  the  dim  promise  of  a 
great  deliverance" — to  be  wrought  out  hereafter  in  the 
French  Revolution  of  1789.  Telemaque  is,  in  its  kind, 
a  masterpiece  of  literature,  delivering  the  best  morality  in 
pleasing  language. 

Women,  who  had  contributed  to  the  elegance  of  this 
society,  could  not  fail  also  to  find  expression  in  a  superior 
writer.  This  genius  was  Madam  de  Sevigne  (1626- 
1696),  whose  letters,  lively,  observant,  and  witty,  still 
charm  by  their  pictures  of  a  past  society,  which  there  reap- 
pears as  in  a  mirror.  The  first  of  feminine  letter-writers, 
she  raises,  embellishes,  animates  and  illumines  all  that  she 
touches,  and  she  touches  every  subject  save  the  highest. 

English  literature  from  the  Seventeenth  Century  was 
still  dominated  by  the  great  name  of  Shakespeare.  But 
Ben  Jonson  (1574-1637)  was  honored  by  his  side.  He 
was  classical,  theoretically  fascinated  by  the  unities  of 
Aristotle,  imitating  Juvenal  as  a  satirist,  but  succeeding 
better  in  lyrical  poetry,  and  in  his  tragedies  drawing  inspi- 
ration from  Tacitus  and  Sallust. 

Francis  Bacon,*  a  member  of  Parliament,  Baron  Veru- 
lam,  Viscount  St.  Albans,  Lord  Chancellor  of  England 

*See  volume  "Great  Philosophers." 


156  MODERN  EUROPE 

under  James  I,  led  men's  ideas  back  to  philosophy  and 
science.  Exerting  himself  to  embrace  both  the  intellectual 
and  physical  world,  he  formed  the  scheme  of  an  immense 
work,  the  "Great  Restoration  of  Science,"  of  which  he  only 
completed  three  parts.  The  most  important  was  the 
'Novum  Organum"  (1620),  by  which  he  opened  a 
method  of  investigation  of  nature  by  induction  which  had 
been  too  much  neglected  since  the  days  of  Aristotle.  To 
deduction  he  opposed  induction.  Bacon  mounted  from 
the  particular  to  the  general,  a  method  tried  by  Descartes 
in  creating  philosophy,  and  by  men  of  science  in  discover- 
ing the  laws  of  the  physical  world.  Bacon  placed  the 
human  mind  on  the  right  path.  In  England  Bacon's  prin- 
ciples were  almost  immediately  applied  to  philosophy  by 
Hobbes  (1588-1680),  whose  philosophy  has  been  lately 
revived,  but  whose  writings  in  his  own  day  had  more  influ- 
ence on  politics  than  on  philosophy. 

The  two  revolutions  of  1640  and  1688  produced  grave 
effects  upon  men's  minds,  and  almost  equal  consequence 
on  literature.  That  of  1640  was  chiefly  religious;  it 
ruined  the  theater,  and  almost  put  secular  poetry  to  flight. 
But  it  inspired  the  genius  of  John  Milton  (1608-1674), 
an  independent  in  politics  as  in  religion,  an  ardent 
reformer,  who  lost  his  sight  through  overwork;  after  the 
storm  had  calmed,  he  wrote  his  magnificent  poem  of  "Par- 
adise Lost."  In  secular  poetry  he  reached  his  highest 
marks  in  "Comus"  and  "Lycidas";  but  the  majestic  organ 
roll  of  his  blank  verse  in  the  "Paradise  Lost"  has  influenced 
English  literature  in  all  departments.  His  "Samson 
Agonistes"  is  the  one  English  tragedy  successfully  mod- 
eled on  the  old  Greek  drama,  if  we  except  Swinburne's 
"Atalanta  in  Calydon." 

John  Bunyan  (1628-1688),  the  son  of  a  poor  tinker, 
was  also  filled  with  religious  inspiration.  A  courageous, 


JOHN    MILTON 


MENTAL  ACTIVITY  AND  PROGRESS        157 

persecuted  preacher,  he  wrote  the  "Pilgrim's  Progress 
from  this  World  to  the  Next";  not  less  original  for  being 
on  an  old  theme,  and  the  one  allegory  whose  characters 
are  flesh  and  blood,  and  which  has  thus  become  really 
popular. 

Samuel  Butler  (1612-1680)  in  his  burlesque  epic  of 
"Hudibras,"  derided  the  savage  zeal  of  the  sectarians,  and 
in  his  satires  lashed  the  licentiousness  of  the  court  of 
Charles  II.  The  English  theater  applied  itself  to  the  imi- 
tation of  the  French  theater,  but  was  unsuccessful  both  in 
tragedy  and  comedy. 

John  Dryden  (1631-1700),  in  the  first  rank,  not 
through  his  tragedies  and  comedies,  but  in  secondary  style, 
excelled  in  political  satire,  as  in  "Absalom  and  Achitophel,'' 
and  in  the  "Ode."  His  poetry,  though  it  introduced  the 
classical  couplet,  is  far  more  vigorous  than  that  of  Pope,  as 
are  also  his  translations;  his  style,  especially  in  prose,  is 
full  of  mirth,  and  through  it  he  is  worthy  to  be  called  a 
classic. 

The  revolution  of  1688  was  in  its  turn  represented  by 
Locke,*  who  was  its  theorist  and  apologist.  In  his  "Essay 
upon  Civil  Government"  he  explained  the  new  govern- 
ment, and  already  anticipated  Rousseau's  "Social  Con- 
tract." In  politics  as  in  philosophy  he  was  already  most 
a  man  of  the  Eighteenth  Century.  In  fact,  if  he  adopted 
Descartes'  method,  he  combated  his  doctrines.  In  his 
"Essay  upon  the  Human  Understanding,"  seeking  for  the 
origin  of  ideas,  he  imagined  he  had  found  it  in  reflection 
and  sense;  he  was  the  father  of  the  English  idealists  and, 
by  reaction,  of  the  Scotch  empirical  school.  English  lit- 
erature was  never  subjected  to  rules  in  the  same  way  as 
French  literature.  It  was  the  true  expression  of  an  ener- 
getic, active,  varied  society,  which  had  grasped  political 

*See  volume  "Great  Philosophers." 


158  MODERN  EUROPE 

and  religious  liberty.  Less  polished  and  less  elegant,  it 
sought,  not  for  beauty  of  form,  but  for  strength  of  ideas, 
yet  it  almost  reached  perfection  of  expression  in  Milton's 
poems.  The  coffee-houses  and  clubs  filled  the  office  of  the 
salons  and  academies  of  France. 

Holland,  which  was  also  a  land  of  liberty,  then 
afforded  a  refuge  to  a  colony  of  skeptics,  and  French 
scholars,  such  as  Bayle,  Basnage,  and  Leclerc.  The  Jew 
Spinoza  ( 1632-1677)  formulated  a  philosophical  doctrine, 
that  contrasted  with  the  French  doctrines.  Only  seeing 
substance  in  the  world,  he  declared  that  God  cannot  exist 
without  nature,  even  as  nature  cannot  exist  without  God. 
He  thus  tended  to  pantheism.  Spinoza  denied  free  will, 
and  in  politics  supported  the  omnipotence  of  the  State.  His 
doctrines  were  afterward  developed  by  disciples. 

The  German  Leibnitz  (1646-1716),  a  mathematician 
and  philosopher,  protested  against  Descartes,  whose  books 
he  called  "the  antechamber  of  truth."  But  he  endeavored 
to  reconcile  his  doctrine  with  Locke's  theories.  He  com- 
bated innate  ideas,  and  made  an  important  restriction  in 
the  maxim  of  philosophers  of  the  experimental  school: 
"There  is  nothing  in  the  mind  that  has  not  first  been  in 
the  senses."  Leibnitz  added,  "unless  it  is  the  mind  itself." 

Spain,  rapidly  decaying  in  the  Seventeenth  Century, 
still  retained  a  reflection  of  her  literary  glory  of  the  pre- 
ceding Century.  The  school  of  Lope  de  Vega  (1562- 
1635)  multiplied  religious  and  secular  dramas  and  com- 
edies. Montalvan  and  Tellez  were  of  almost  inexhausti- 
ble fertility.  Guillem  de  Castro  borrowed  from  the  popular 
romances  his  magnificent  drama  of  the  "Cid,"  which 
inspired  Corneille.  Alarcon,  by  his  comedies,  furnished 
models  that  Corneille  imitated  in  the  "Menteur." 

Calderon  de  la  Barca  (1600-1681),  first  soldier,  then 
priest,  was  perhaps  the  most  fertile,  and  certainly  the 


MENTAL  ACTIVITY  AND  PROGRESS        i$9 

greatest  dramatic  poet  of  Spain.  His  secular  dramas  are 
animated  with  powerful  and  passionate  interest,  and  in 
them  he  exalts  the  sentiment  of  honor,  also  dear  to  Span- 
iards. His  comedies  were  full  of  complicated  intrigues 
and  surprises.  He  used  considerable  variety  in  the  meters 
he  employed;  deficient  in  the  study  of  character,  and  often 
trivial  and  ridiculous,  no  writer  has  lavished  more  brilliant 
poetry  on  his  plays,  which  number  more  than  five  hundred. 
We  quite  forget  who  utters  the  sentiments  in  the  dazzling 
beauty  of  the  verses.  Even  scholastic  abstractions  can 
gain  a  hearing  thus.  Decadence  had  commenced  in  lit- 
erature as  well  as  in  politics.  The  Inquisition  stifled 
thought  by  its  increasing  suspiciousness.  Spain  was  then 
full  of  intolerance,  and  the  butcheries  of  the  autos-da-fe 
threw  a  sinister  light  over  the  popular  rejoicings  of  which 
they  formed  a  part.  Poets  therefore  took  refuge  in 
affected  conceits,  and  Luis  de  Gongora  founded  a  school 
of  bad  taste;  Gongorisms  reigned  without  rival.  Such  a 
country  could  not  develop  philosophy  and  history. 

The  Seventeenth  Century,  which  in  literature  revived 
the  glory  of  the  ancients,  had  its  peculiar  distinction  in  its 
scientific  progress.  The  human  mind  has  attained  real 
knowledge  chiefly  through  combination  of  figures,  num- 
bers and  lines,  and  through  the  science  of  mathematics; 
thus  freeing  itself  from  the  dreams  of  astrology,  discov- 
ered through  astronomy  the  true  movements  of  the  celes- 
tial bodies;  lastly,  observing  physical  phenomena,  experi- 
menting with  them,  studying  their  laws,  it  has  made  them 
instruments  which  have  increased  the  power  of  industry 
tenfold.  Men  of  science  are  the  most  active  pioneers  of 
civilization,  the  most  worthy  of  admiration  and  of  the 
gratitude  of  all.  They  have  really  created  the  modern 
world. 

In  the  Sixteenth  Century,  Tycho-Brahe  still  mingled 


i6o  MODERN  EUROPE 

astrology  with  astronomy.  One  of  his  disciples,  Kepler 
(1571-1630),  born  in  Wurtemberg,  calculated  instead  of 
dreaming.  Striving  to  find  unity  and  harmony  in  the 
apparent  disorder  of  the  world,  he  nearly  touched  the  law 
of  universal  gravitation.  He  at  least  found  three  laws, 
which  bear  his  name,  which  laid  the  foundation  of  true 
mathematical  astronomy,  and  placed  their  author  among 
the  great  thinkers  of  all  time.  They  assert  and  prove  that 
every  planet  describes  an  ellipse  round  the  sun;  that  the 
rate  of  movement  in  the  planets  is,  in  a  certain  sense,  uni- 
form; that  the  times  occupied  by  the  planets  in  revolution 
round  the  sun  bear  a  certain  proportion  to  their  mean  dis- 
tances from  the  sun.  The  laws  of  the  attraction  of  gravita- 
tion were  founded  by  Newton  upon  these  discoveries  of  the 
illustrious  man  whose  outward  life  was  embittered  by 
poverty  of  purse  while  his  inward  being  was  gladdened 
in  the  consciousness  of  priceless  services  rendered  to  the 
cause  of  truth  and  well-grounded  discovery  in  the  realm 
of  nature's  laws. 

Galileo  (1564-1642),  born  in  Pisa,  constructed  the 
first  astronomical  telescopes  magnifying  the  diameter  one 
hundred  times,  studied  the  moon,  the  stars  and  planets, 
and  discovered  Jupiter's  four  satellites,  the  spots  on  the 
sun,  the  revolution  of  the  sun  on  its  axis,  and,  reviving  the 
system  of  Copernicus,  he  confirmed  the  rotary  movement 
of  the  earth.  Superstition  was  still  so  powerful  that  Gali- 
leo, although  protected  by  the  more  enlightened  Popes, 
was  condemned  to  retract  his  works  by  the  tribunal  of 
the  Inquisition;  but  this  did  not  impede  the  earth's  motion, 
and  Galileo  himself,  rising  after  abjuring  his  pretended 
error,  murmured,  "And  yet  it  moves!"  Galileo  had 
marked  the  earth's  place  in  the  solar  system. 

Isaac  Newton  (1642-1727),  the  son  of  a  Lincolnshire 
farmer,  gifted  with  an  extraordinary  aptitude  for  mathe- 


MENTAL  ACTIVITY  AND  PROGRESS        161 

matics,  discovered  the  law  of  gravitation — that  law  which 
binds  the  earth  to  the  celestial  bodies.  He  proved  that  the 
sun  acted  upon  the  planets  and  the  planets  acted  upon  each 
other  in  proportion  to  their  bulk,  and  formulated  the  uni- 
versal law  in  the  simple  words  :  "The  force  of  attraction 
of  a  body  is  inversely  proportional  to  the  square  of  the 
distance."  This  principle,  which  became  the  starting  point 
of  all  astronomical  studies,  was  not  well  understood  at 
first,  and  yet  it  is  one  of  the  most  astonishing  discoveries 
that  have  been  made  by  man.  Newton  solved  by  it  one 
great  secret  of  the  Universe.  The  heavens  were  opened 
to  fruitful  observations. 

Edmund  Halley  (1656-1742)  calculated  the  orbit  of 
a  comet  which  appeared  in  1681,  and  which  has  retained 
his  name.  John  Flamsteed  ( 1646-1719)  made  a  catalogue 
of  the  stars,  and  was  the  first  director  of  the  Greenwich 
Observatory  (1676).  Observatories  had  already  been 
established  at  Copenhagen  (1632)  by  Longomontanus,  at 
Dantzic  (1641),  founded  by  Hevetius,  the  Pole,  and  at 
Altorf,  in  Bavaria  (1667).  The  one  in  Paris  was  com- 
menced in  1667,  and  completed  in  1671,  from  Cassini's 
plans. 

Huyghens  (1625-1695),  a  Dutchman,  a  universal 
savant,  manufactured  his  own  telescope,  which  surpassed 
all  that  had  yet  been  attempted.  He  was  the  first  to  see 
Saturn  surrounded  by  a  luminous  band — which  was  the 
ring  ( 1655)  ;  he  afterward  discovered  one  of  the  satellites, 
and  Dominique  Cassini,  of  France,  discovered  some  of  the 
others.  A  Dane,  Olaus  Roemer,  brought  to  France  by 
Picard  in  1672,  and  lodged  in  the  Observatory,  had  a  large 
share  in  the  astronomical  labors  of  the  French;  then, 
recalled  to  Copenhagen,  he  continued  his  researches  there. 
He  succeeded  (1700)  in  arranging  a  magnifying  glass 
that,  while  remaining  fixed  in  the  plane  of  the  meridian, 

VOI,.  2  —  II 


i62  MODERN  EUROPE 

was  movable  on  its  axis.  He  calculated  that  the  light  was 
eight  minutes  coming  from  the  sun  to  the  earth. 

The  labors  of  astronomers  and  mathematicians  were 
valuable  aids  to  physical  science.  Bacon  estimated  them 
at  their  true  value;  he  kept  them  ever  in  view  when  exalt- 
ing the  dignity  of  science.  He  advised  savants  to  observe 
nature,  to  study  and  analyze  phenomena,  and  to  found 
laws  on  facts  alone.  "Man  is  the  servant  and  interpreter 
of  nature"  was  his  motto.  The  recognition  of  this  places 
the  name  of  Bacon  at  the  head  of  the  list  of  natural  philo- 
sophers, although  personally  he  made  no  scientific  discov- 
eries, and  though,  while  an  admirable  moral  essayist,  his 
conduct  fell  far  short  of  his  teaching.  His  philosophy  is 
discussed  in  the  volume  "Great  Philosophers." 

A  few  men  of  great  genius  had  not  waited  for  Bacon's 
writings  before  devoting  themselves  to  experiment.  We 
are  amazed  when  we  think  what  simple  daily  facts  have 
led  men  to  their  greatest  discoveries.  Galileo  watched  a 
lamp  that  oscillated  in  the  cathedral  of  Pisa  (1583).  He 
observed  that  even  when  this  oscillation  diminished,  the 
arcs,  although  smaller,  were  all  traversed  in  the  same  space 
of  time.  He  formulated  hence  the  law  of  the  isochronism 
of  the  oscillation  of  a  pendulum  that  afterward  deter- 
mined the  law  of  gravity.  A  Florentine  gardener,  having 
constructed  an  unusually  large  pump,  observed  with  sur- 
prise that  the  water  never  rose  above  thirty-two  feet; 
Galileo  vainly  endeavored  to  explain  the  fact.  His  disci- 
ple, Tor  ricelli  (1608-1647),  solved  the  difficulty,  and  his 
experiments  on  the  weight  of  the  atmosphere  led  him  to 
construct  the  tubes  which  led  to  the  invention  of  the 
barometer. 

Pascal  (1623-1662)  continued  Torricelli's  experi- 
ments, measured  the  height  of  a  column  of  mercury  at 
Clermont,  and  on  the  top  of  the  Puy  de  Dome  ( 1648) ,  and 


MENTAL  ACTIVITY  AND  PROGRESS        163 

found  that  the  height  was  inversely  proportionate  to  the 
elevation  of  the  country.  He  verified  this  fact  by  fresh 
observations  at  Paris,  on  the  tower  of  Saint  Jacques-la- 
Boucherie.  Descartes,  although  learned  in  physical  sci- 
ence, was  rather  a  mathematician,  and  followed  a  mistaken 
theory  of  vortices,  which,  however,  may  be  noted  from  an 
historical  point  of  view,  for  it,  perhaps,  directed  Newton 
toward  the  road  which  led  to  his  discoveries. 

Lastly,  one  of  those  discoveries  which  effect  a  revolu- 
tion in  the  world  dates  from  this  epoch;  that  of  the  power 
of  steam.  Denis  Papin  (1647-1714),  born  at  Blois,  but 
driven  from  France  by  the  Revocation  of  the  Edict  of 
Nantes,  had  from  the  year  1674  made  various  experiments 
upon  water  heated  in  the  open  air  and  overheated  in  a 
closed  vase.  His  invention  is  attributed  to  the  observa- 
tion of  the  effect  produced  upon  the  lid  of  a  sauce-pan  by 
the  steam  of  the  boiling  water.  However  that  may  be,  he 
succeeded  in  constructing,  under  the  name  of  the 
"digester,"  an  apparatus  intended  to  extract,  by  steam  at 
high  pressure,  the  gelatinous  portion  of  bone.  He  also- 
invented  the  first  steam-engine  with  a  piston,  and  launched 
on  the  Fulda,  in  Germany,  a  real  steamboat,  which  ignor- 
ant and  jealous  sailors  destroyed.  Another  Century 
passed  before  this  new  force,  which  Papin  had  discovered, 
could  be  turned  to  account  by  Watt;  it  has  since  changed 
the  face  of  the  world. 

In  the  Sixteenth  Century,  the  progress  of  surgery  had 
stirred  the  emulation  of  the  physicians.  The  celebrated 
William  Harvey  (1578-1657)  then  commenced  his  labors, 
and  he  discovered  the  laws  of  the  circulation  of  the  blood, 
and  thus  in  a  measure  the  vital  principle.  Thomas  Syden- 
ham  (1625-1689)  studied  the  laws  of  epidemics;  there 
are  also  to  be  named  the  Dutchman  Boerhaave  (1668- 
1738),  one  of  the  founders  of  clinical  medicine;  and  the 


1 64  MODERN  EUROPE 

Frenchman  Pecquet  (1622-1674),  whose  name  has  been 
given  to  one  of  the  canals  in  the  human  body  which  serves 
to  distribute  the  chyle.  The  old  a  priori  medicine  vainly 
endeavored  to  contend  against  experimental  science,  and 
speedily  succumbed  under  the  ridicule  Which  Moliere 
directed  against  the  pedantry  of  the  doctors,  who  were 
formerly  powerful  enough  to  humiliate  the  surgeons,  by 
causing  their  college  to  be  amalgamated  with  the  company 
of  master  barbers. 

Italy,  although  in  decadence,  still  attracted  and 
inspired  painters.  She  awakened  the  genius  of  the  Span- 
ish painter  Ribera  (1588-1656).  Living  like  a  vagabond 
in  Rome,  he  studied  the  pictures  of  Caravaggio  and  Cor- 
reggio,  then  settling  in  Naples,  he  accumulated  wealth,  • 
and  became  one  of  the  most  important  personages  of  his 
time.  But  though  he  deserted  his  country,  he  never 
renounced  it,  and  infused  Spanish  fire  into  Italian  imi- 
tations. He  preferred  subjects  in  which  he  could  intro- 
duce violent  contrasts  of  light  and  shade.  He  was  a  real- 
ist, who  reveled  in  the  terrible,  the  savage,  and  the  hid- 
eous, and  we  are  forced  to  admire  the  power  of  his  work. 

Zurbaran  (1598-1662)  has  been  surnamed  with  some 
exaggeration  "the  Spanish  Caravaggio,"  probably  because 
of  the  bluish  tints  which  he  preferred,  but  no  one  ever 
depicted  the  rigors  of  an  ascetic  life  better  than  he.  Her- 
rera  (1576-1656)  the  elder,  and  Pacheco  (1571-1654) 
are  chiefly  distinguished  because  they  were  the  masters  of 
Velasquez.  Velasquez  (1599-1660),  painter  and  friend 
of  Philip  IV,  the  greatest  painter  of  the  Spanish  school, 
succeeded  in  every  style — history  portraits,  landscapes, 
scenes  of  familiar  life,  animals,  flowers,  and  fruit.  Jean 
Jacques  Rousseau  called  him  "the  man  of  nature  and 
of  truth."  His  portraits  are  masterpieces  and  seem 
almost  able  to  speak.  Velasquez  was  n$t  so  ascetically 


MENTAL  ACTIVITY  AND  PROGRESS       165 

or  mystically  religious  as  other  Spanish  painters,  and  his 
paintings  have  a  wider  range.  He  is  the  artist  of  the 
Court  rather  than  of  the  Convent  and  Church.  But  in 
Catholic  Spain  religious  painting  could  not  be  abandoned, 
and  Murillo  (1618-1682)  rendered  it  glorious.  A  fol- 
lower of  Velasquez,  he  also  imitated  the  Italian  masters. 
At  Seville  he  painted  innumerable  works  for  the  churches 
and  convents,  and  many  of  them  have  now  been  collected 
in  a  convent,  which  has  been  converted  into  a  picture  gal- 
lery. His  Virgins,  the  ecstasies  of  the  saints,  his  Annun- 
ciations and  Assumptions  are  distinguished  by  a  nameless 
charm  which  reproduces  the  mystical  inspiration  of  the 
artist,  who  is  classed  among  the  glories  of  Spain  and  of 
painting.  But  after  Murillo  and  Juan  Carreno,  an  imi- 
tator of  Velasquez,  the  arts  in  Spain  fell  into  the  deca- 
dence that  had  already  affected  literature.  The  languor 
which  had  seized  the  nation  spread  to  literature  and  art. 
In  the  Sixteenth  Century  the  French  had  not  only 
been  instructed,  but  also  supplanted  in  their  own  coun- 
try by  Italians;  in  the  Seventeenth  they  rivaled  their 
teachers.  Simon  Vouet,  after  fourteen  years'  sojourn 
in  Rome,  brought  back  specimens  of  the  Bolognese 
school,  and  himself  deserved  to  be  a  model  to  the  paint- 
ers who  succeeded  him.  Nicholas  Poussin  (1594-1665) 
arrived  at  Rome,  like  Ribera,  as  a  beggar,  settled  there, 
like  him,  remained  true  to  his  own  country.  The  grave, 
austere  tendency  of  his  genius  was  blended  with  great 
knowledge  of  anatomy  and  philosophy  and  familiarity 
with  history  and  poetry.  Poussin  shows  how  much 
science  has  done  to  raise  and  nourish  art.  In  religious 
subjects,  in  secular  pictures,  and  in  landscapes,  for  he 
cultivated  all  styles  with  equal  success,  Poussin  carried 
the  arrangement  and  composition  of  his  subjects,  the 
expression  of  sentiment,  and  the  always  noble  style  of 


1 66  MODERN  EUROPE 

his  personages  to  great  perfection.  He  is  one  of  the 
most  brilliant  disciples  of  the  great  Italian  masters,  and 
at  the  same  time  an  original  artist,  who  retained  in  his 
pictures  the  logic  and  good  taste  that  belong  to  his 
native  land.  He  is  the  Prince  of  the  elder  French 
school. 

The  Flemish  school  was  the  most  prolific  and  most 
brilliant  in  the  Seventeenth  Century.  The  Flemings, 
through  their  study  of  Italy,  replaced  the  latter,  and  the 
Seventeenth  Century  was  their  golden  age.  Rubens 
(1577-1640),  by  his  prodigious  activity,  his  facility  and 
powerful  work,  and  also  by  his  brilliant  coloring,  recalled 
the  great  artists  of  the  Sixteenth  Century,  whom  he 
surpassed  by  his  wealth,  his  luxury,  and  the  favor  he 
enjoyed  in  his  own  country,  in  France,  Spain,  and  Eng- 
land, where  he  was  the  guest  and  painter  of  sovereigns. 
Religious  and  mythological,  historical  and  allegorical, 
portrait  or  landscape,  he  mastered  every  style.  It  was 
no  longer  the  concentration  of  an  artist  striving  to  attain 
perfection  in  a  few  finished  works,  but  the  genius  of  an 
artist  reveling  in  the  somewhat  coarse  beauty  of  the 
flesh,  delighting  in  difficulties,  in  love  with  his  occupa- 
tion, throwing  in  the  principal  of  his  frequently  happy 
compositions,  and  concealing  all  imperfections  of  draw- 
ing and  unshapeliness  of  outline  under  a  brilliancy  of 
color  that  dazzles  the  eye, 

Rubens,  admired  and  feted,  had  a  large  school,  from 
which  some  pupils  issued  that  rivaled  their  master.  Van 
Dyck  (1599-1641)  traveled  like  him,  and  was  also  a 
favorite  with  Princes.  He  painted  magnificent  pictures 
for  churches,  but  he  was  chiefly  celebrated  for  his  por- 
traits. He  painted  thirty-eight  portraits  of  Charles  I 
and  Henrietta,  without  counting  nobles  or  Princesses, 
who  eagerly  competed  for  the  honor  of  seeing  their 


MENTAL  ACTIVITY  AND  PROGRESS        167 

own  features  reproduced  on  canvas  by  a  brush  which 
gave  them  the  expression  and  vitality  of  nature,  whilst 
it  flattered  them  by  a  distinction  and  grace  peculiar  to 
Van  Dyck's  work.  Jordaens,  another  of  Rubens'  pupils, 
succeeded  equally  in  portraiture,  but  he  also  touched 
every  other  subject,  religious  or  popular,  allegorical 
or  historical.  Gaspard  de  Grayer  treated  religious  and 
historical  subjects,  and  with  Corneille  de  Vos  deserves 
mention;  nor  must  Franz  Snyders,  the  painter  of  the 
chase,  be  forgotten  among  the  contemporaries  of 
Rubens. 

David  Teniers  (1610-1694),  son  of  a  painter,  son-in- 
law  of  Velvet  Breughel,  raised  himself  to  the  first  rank 
by  the  creation  of  genre  painting.  Teniers  depicts  life, 
and  particularly  Flemish  life.  Teniers  saw  with  the  eyes 
of  genius  the  blustering  sensual  life  of  his  fellow  coun- 
trymen; he  reproduced  the  smoky  taverns,  the  card 
parties,  the  pots  of  beer,  the  abundant  feasting,  the  ani- 
mated fairs  of  his  country,  and  portrays  initimably  the 
coarse,  shrewd  humor  of  the  peasants  of  the  North. 
Teniers  brings  us  down  to  earth;  but  better  than  any 
historian  he  has  described  for  us  one  side  of  the  spirit  of 
his  age. 

Nature  awakened  the  Dutch  genius;  the  green 
trees,  the  damp  meadows,  the  herds  of  cattle,  the  sea 
and  the  ships,  impressed  and  inspired  the  artists  of  the 
land  that  had  been  wrested  from  the  water  by  the  patient 
industry  of  its  inhabitants.  For  a  long  time  the 
Dutch,  united  to  the  Flemings  under  the  Spanish  rule, 
had  only  the  Flemish  artists.  But  art  emancipated  itself 
at  the  same  time  as  the  country,  and  in  the  Seventeeth 
Century  a  school  appeared  that  rivaled  the  Flemish. 
Rembrandt  (1607-1669)  was  the  chief  and  most  glorious 
of  its  masters.  While  Rubens  sought  for  brilliant 


168  MODERN  EUROPE 

light  and  exaggerated  coloring,  Rembrandt  found  new 
poetry  in  the  opposition  of  light  and  shade.  He  sought 
for  night  effects  and  contrasts  of  color.  He  loved  to 
illuminate  and  brighten  his  figures  on  a  dark  back- 
ground. His  work  was  considerable,  and  is  distributed 
amongst  the  different  museums  of  Europe.  His  mas- 
terpieces, "The  Anatomy  Lesson"  (at  The  Hague),  and 
"The  Night  Watch"  (at  Amsterdam),  are  popular  clas- 
sics, continually  reproduced  by  engravings.  Rembrandt 
designed  his  pictures  admirably.  They  at  once  seize 
the  imagination,  and  by  his  cleverly  graduated  distribu- 
tion of  colors,  by  his  powerful  contrasts,  they  leave  a 
profound  impression.  He  was  also  in  the  first  rank  of 
portrait  painters. 

Art  in  the  Seventeenth  Century  assumed  the  realistic 
tone  it  was  to  retain.  In  some  degrees  it  descended  to 
earth,  although  French  art  still  tended  toward  the  ideal- 
ism of  the  Italians.  Thought,  already  freed,  though  the 
century  was  given  up  to  intolerance,  had  opened  the 
vast  fields  of  natural  science,  where  reason  braced  and 
strengthened  herself,  and  by  her  speculations,  more  and 
more  daring,  approached  nearer  to  the  Infinite  reason, 
whose  laws  she  had  vainly  sought  to  understand  by  a 
priori  argument.  Modern  languages  had  their  classical 
authors,  who  again  inspired  others. 

Science  made  its  appearance  with  discoveries  that 
have  produced  marvelous  results.  Human  society 
was  transformed  and  polished.  Kingdoms  were  estab- 
lished, and  England  offered  a  model  of  liberty.  The 
march  of  ideas  was  accelerated  in  the  Seventeenth  Cen- 
tury. Already  over  Europe,  still  priest-ridden  and  still 
feudal,  a  breath  of  criticism  was  passing,  which  in  the 
Eighteenth  Century  broke  down  the  old  barriers,  pre- 
judices, and  tyrannies. 


THE   RISE    OF    RUSSIA 

The  Russians,  like  the  people  of  Bohemia,  Croatia, 
Servia,  Dalmatia,  and  Poland,  are  of  the  Slavonic  race, 
numbering  in  all  about  one-third  part  of  the  whole  popu- 
lation of  Europe.  Up  to  the  beginning  of  the  Eight- 
eenth Century,  The  Muscovites,  or  Russians,  had  made 
no  figure  in  European  history  commensurate  with  their 
numbers  and  territory,  and  with  the  capacity  for  great- 
ness which  they  share  with  other  members  of  the  Aryan 
family  of  nations.  The  reason  of  this  is  to  be  found 
mainly  in  the  position  held  by  their  country,  which  ex- 
posed them  to  the  constant  attacks  of  Tartar  races  from 
Central  Asia,  and  rendered  them  incapable  of  coping 
with  the  Germanic  nations  in  the  center  and  north  of 
Europe. 

Russia  appears  first  as  a  Kingdom  in  the  Ninth  Cen- 
tury, when  the  Scandinavian  chief,  Rurik,  conquered  the 
country,  and  ruled,  with  Novgorod  as  his  capital,  from 
865  to  879.  At  the  end  of  the  Tenth  Century,  King 
Vladimir,  the  Russian  Charlemagne,  embraced  Chris- 
tianity on  marrying  a  Princess  of  the  Eastern  Empire, 
promoted  the  conversion  of  his  people,  and  introduced 
an  alphabet  along  with  the  rudiments  of  Greek  civiliza- 
tion. In  the  Thirteenth  Century  the  Tartars  from  Asia, 
under  successors  of  Genghis  Khan,  overran  the  whole 
country,  and  founded  a  state  at  Kazan,  on  the  Volga, 
which  long  held  Russia  in  virtual  subjection  and  kept 
her  from  attaining  any  power  or  importance  in  Europe. 
Successive  subdivisions  of  territory  among  the  sons  of 
the  Sovereign  prevented  Russia  from  having  any  his- 

169 


170  MODERN  EUROPE 

torical  existence  as  a  united  state  until  the  middle  of 
the  Fifteenth  Century.  During  part  of  this  period  of 
confusion,  an  independent  Republic  existed  at  Novgo- 
rod, then  the  greatest  center  of  commerce,  and  a  rich 
and  powerful  city. 

The  founder  of  Russian  independence  and  unity  was 
Ivan  Vasilovitz  (or  Vassilivich),  Ivan  III  of  Russia,  who, 
in  the  last  half  of  the  Fifteenth  Century,  attacked  the 
Tartars,  took  Kazan,  subdued  Novgorod,  freed  his 
country  from  Tartar  sway,  and  reunited  the  ancient 
dominions  of  Russia.  The  country  thus  became  power- 
ful, but  was  cut  off  still  from  the  Baltic  by  the  Poles  and 
the  Swedes,  and  from  the  Black  Sea  by  the  Tartars  of 
the  Crimea.  Ivan  IV,  surnamed  "The  Terrible,"  from 
the  cruelties  of  the  latter  part  of  his  reign,  ruled  from 
1546  to  1584,  and  did  much  for  Russian  progress.  He 
extended  the  Empire  to  the  Caspian  Sea;  began  the 
conquest  of  Siberia;  fought  with  the  Poles,  the  Swedes, 
and  the  Tartars,  and  ultimately  maintained  his  position. 
He  made  a  treaty  of  commerce  with  England,  published 
a  code  of  laws  in  1550,  introduced  printing  into  Russia, 
and  helped  forward  art  and  learning.  The  dynasty  of 
Rurik  ended  in  1598,  seven  centuries  after  the  founding 
of  the  Russian  nationality.  After  a  time  of  anarchy  and 
civil  war,  caused  by  pretenders  to  the  throne,  Michael 
Feodorovich,  of  the  house  of  Romanoff,  became  Czar, 
or  Emperor,  in  1613;  from  him  is  descended  the  ruling 
line  of  Russia.  Under  him  much  territory  was  yielded 
to  Poland  and  to  Sweden — which  latter  nation  had 
become  an  important  element  in  European  politics. 
Michael  then  devoted  himself  to  the  internal  improve- 
ment of  Russia,  in  the  way  of  laws  and  trade,  and  died 
in  1645.  Under  his  son  Alexis  (1645-1676),  a  code  of 
common  or  fundamental  laws  was  established,  and  the 


THE  RISE  OF  RUSSIA  171 

power  of  Russia  continued  to  grow.  It  was  a  son  of 
Alexis  who  founded  the  real  modern  importance  of 
Russia,  and  first  gave  her  a  place  among  the  chief  powers 
of  Europe.  This  man  was  the  world-famous  Peter  the 
Great,  the  subject  of  an  article  in  the  volume,  "Foreign 
Statesmen." 

Peter  the  Great  ruled  Russia  from  1689  till  1725, 
and  effected  wonders  of  energy  and  wisdom.  His 
genius  and  will  triumphed  over  difficulties,  disadvan- 
tages and  dangers  that  nothing  but  the  highest  capacity 
and  determination  could  have  overcome.  Consigned 
by  his  relatives,  from  ambitious  motives,  to  a  youth  of 
ignorance  and  rude  debauchery,  he  gave  early  proofs 
of  ability  in  the  study  of  military  science  under  instruct- 
ors obtained  by  himself.  To  the  end  of  his  life  his 
appearance,  habits,  and  manners  were  those  of  a  semi- 
savage,  who  had  succeeded  in  civilizing  a  nation,  but 
had  never  tamed  and  polished  himself. 

Determined  to  make  Russia  truly  great  and  formid- 
able, Peter  gave  his  first  thoughts  to  the  acquirement 
of  a  seaboard  and  a  navy.  From  Archangel  he  went 
cruises  on  board  Dutch  and  English  ships,  in  order  to 
learn  seamanship  himself.  He  brought  to  Russia  ship- 
builders from  Venice  and  from  Holland;  he  sent  Rus- 
sians to  learn  shipbuilding  abroad;  he  built  a  fleet  which 
floated  down  the  Don,  and  conquered  (in  1696)  the  town 
of  Azov  from  the  Turks.  This  gave  at  once  an  open- 
ing for  the  future  to  the  waters  of  the  Black  Sea.  He 
paid  no  heed  to  the  remonstrances  against  reform  which 
came  from  his  reactionary  Boyars,  or  nobles,  and  in 
1697  suppressed,  with  great  severity,  a  revolt  of  the 
Strelitz  or  body-guard,  the  tumultuous  Praetorians  of 
Russia.  In  1697  Peter  set  out  for  Western  Europe  to 
see  for  himself  the  wonders  of  her  developed  culture, 


172  MODERN  EUROPE 

and  to  obtain  means  and  models  for  carrying  out  the 
vast  designs  which  he  had  formed  for  the  improvement 
of  his  people.  Working  as  a  shipbuilder  in  the  yards 
of  Saardam,  Holland,  taking  his  weekly  wages,  dressed 
as  a  common  carpenter,  he  at  the  same  time  studied 
carefully  every  process  of  manufacture  to  which  his 
eager  eyes  and  active  mind  could  find  access.  In  1698 
he  passed  over  to  England,  where  he  was  made  welcome 
by  William  III.  But  he  would  have  none  of  princely 
state  or  entertainment,  and  passed  his  time  chiefly  in 
the  dockyard  at  Deptford,  smoking  his  pipe  at  night, 
and  drinking  beer  and  brandy  with  his  companions  at 
a  tavern.  On  his  way  home  Peter  studied  at  Vienna  the 
organization  of  the  German  army,  and  returned  to  his 
capital,  Moscow,  in  September,  1698.  His  army  was 
then  developed  on  the  German  model,  and  Peter,  serving 
first  as  a  private  soldier,  worked  his  way  up  to  an  officer's 
commission,  compelling  the  young  nobles  to  follow  his 
example. 

Peter  started  his  social  reforms  with  the  introduction 
of  the  Dutch  and  German  style  of  dress,  instead  of  ori- 
ental robes,  and  the  emancipation  of  the  ladies  of  Rus- 
sia from  Asiatic  seclusion.  He  established  a  regular 
system  in  the  revenue,  made  himself  virtually  head 
of  the  Church,  and  modified  the  power  of  the  clergy. 
Schools  of  navigation  and  mathematics  were  founded; 
new  breeds  of  cattle  brought  in  from  Poland;  foreign 
artisans  of  all  kinds  introduced;  manufactories  of  arms, 
tools,  and  fabrics  established,  and  a  beginning  made  in 
working  the  mineral  treasures  of  the  country.  During 
the  reign  of  this  great  sovereign  every  department  of 
state  was  remodeled — the  army,  the  national  religion, 
the  system  of  education,  the  established  laws,  and  the 


THE  RISE  OF  RUSSIA  173 

administration  of  justice.  What  Russia  now  is  she  owes 
largely  to  the  persistent  efforts  of  a  most  sagacious  and 
enlightened  man,  who  forced  her,  with  tyrannical 
energy,  from  the  jungle  of  barbarism  into  the  paths  of 
progress  and  civilization. 

It  was  on  the  ruins  of  Sweden  that  Russia  rose  to 
greatness  in  Europe.  In  1696  Peter  had  conquered 
Azov  from  the  Turks,  giving  Russia  an  outlet  on  the 
Black  Sea.  But  Russia  was  still  excluded  from  the 
Baltic,  and  a  position  on  that  coast  could  only  be  secured 
at  the  expense  of  Sweden,  which  was  at  that  time  one 
of  the  powerful  Nations  of  Europe.  Finland,  Livonia, 
Esthonia,  and  other  districts  east  of  the  Baltic  were 
Swedish  Provinces,  and  in  Germany  she  held  the  Duchy 
of  Bremen,  part  of  Pomerania,  and  other  territory.  In 
1697,  at  the  age  of  fifteen,  Charles  XII  became  King 
of  Sweden,  and  his  youth  and  seeming  helplessness 
encouraged  his  neighbors  to  attack  him.  In  1700, 
Peter  of  Russia,  believing  his  army  to  be  fit  for  the 
field,  joined  Denmark  and  Poland  in  war  against 
Sweden.  All  three  aggressors  soon  found  that  in  the 
young  Sovereign  of  the  North  they  had  grievously  mis- 
taken their  man — Russia,  indeed,  with  a  glance  at  her 
early  history,  may  be  said  to  have  "caught  a  Tartar." 
The  Swedish  King  was  a  born  soldier,  heading  one  of 
the  best  armies  in  Europe.  He  turned  first  upon  Den- 
mark, attacked  Copenhagen  by  sea  and  land,  and  fairly 
frightened  the  Danes  into  peace.  In  November,  1700, 
Charles,  with  10,000  men,  totally  defeated  80,000  Rus- 
sians at  Narva,  on  the  south  coast  of  the  Gulf  of  Finland. 
He  then  marched  against  Augustus  of  Poland,  who 
was  besieging  Riga.  Charles  gained  a  decisive  victory, 
pursued  Augustus  into  Poland,  defeated  him  again,  and 


174  MODERN  EUROPE 

dethroned  him  in  1703,  acquiring  by  these  exploits  a 
military  renown  which  attracted  to  his  camp  in  Germany 
Marlborough  and  other  great  generals. 

Peter  had  not  been  present  at  Narva,  and  received 
the  news  of  his  army's  overthrow  with  a  cool  expres- 
sion of  confidence  that  his  men  would  learn  from  the 
Swedes  in  time  how  to  beat  them  in  their  turn.  He  was 
willing  to  pay  the  price  for  a  lesson  in  coming  conquest. 
While  Charles  XII  was  in  Poland  and  Germany,  Peter 
gained  some  successes  over  the  Swedish  Generals,  and 
in  1703  he  laid,  on  the  banks  of  the  Neva,  the  founda- 
tions of  his  future  capital,  St.  Petersburg.  The  suc- 
cesses of  the  Swedish  King  had  made  him  believe  him- 
self invincible,  and  when  Charles  left  Saxony  in  Sep- 
tember, 1707,  to  invade  Russia  at  the  head  of  40,000 
well-appointed  Swedes,  a  crisis  had  come  for  Peter, 
for  Russia,  and  for  the  future  history  of  Europe.  The 
work  of  Peter's  reforms  in  Russia  was  still  incomplete, 
and  with  his  fall  the  country  would  have  gone  back 
into  the  chaos  of  barbarism  from  which  it  was  just 
emerging.  If  Moscow  had  been  captured  by  Charles 
XII,  the  fate  of  Russia  would  have  been  sealed,  and 
she  would  never  have  become,  as  she  has,  one  of  the 
most  formidable  and  potent  factors  in  the  politics  of 
Europe  and  of  Asia.  Fortunately  for  Russia,  Charles 
proved  himself,  in  his  last  campaign,  to  be  as  poor  or 
as  rash  in  strategy,  as  ignorant  or  as  regardless  of  the 
real  art  of  war,  as  he  undoubtedly  was  an  able  tactician 
and  daring  soldier  on  the  field  of  battle. 

The  Czar  Peter  had  assembled  a  force  of  100,000 
men  to  meet  his  antagonist,  and  the  mistakes  of  Charles 
made  his  task  an  easy  one.  Instead  of  striking  at  the 
enemy's  heart  and  marching  straight  on  Moscow,  the 
Swedish  King  turned  southward  to  the  Ukraine  dis- 


THE  RISE  OF  RUSSIA  175 

trict,  where  Mazeppa,  a  revolted  Cossack  chief,  had 
promised  to  join  him.  Peter  avoided  a  decisive 
encounter,  laid  waste  the  country,  and  left  his  foe  at 
the  mercy  of  long  marches,  broken  communications, 
want  of  supplies,  and  the  Russian  climate.  In  October, 
1708,  Peter  attacked  General  Lewenhaupt,  who  was 
coming1  from  Livonia  to  join  Charles  with  reinforce- 
ments and  provisions.  The  Swedes  were  overwhelmed 
by  numbers;  after  three  days'  desperate  fighting  the 
cannon,  ammunition,  and  food  wagons  were  lost,  and 
Lewenhaupt  reached  Charles  in  the  Ukraine  with  only  a 
few  thousand  harrassed  and  starving  survivors.  The 
Russian  winter  of  1708-9  greatly  reduced  the  Swedish 
force,  and  the  crisis  came  in  the  summer  of  1709.  Early 
in  1709,  Charles  XII,  at  his  wits'  ends  for  supplies,  re- 
solved to  besiege  Pultowa,  a  town  in  Southern  Russia, 
between  Kharkov  and  the  River  Dneiper,  which  was  one 
of  Peter's  chief  magazines  of  stores.  The  Czar  marched 
to  its  relief  with  60,000  men,  and  a  decisive  action  was 
fought  on  July  8th.  The  forces  of  Charles  numbered 
but  24,000,  of  whom  one-half  only  were  Swedes,  and 
the  Russians  held  a  strong  position  defended  by  well- 
armed  works.  The  Swedish  King  had  been  disabled 
by  a  wound,  and  could  not  lead  his  men  on  in  person. 
The  dreadful  day  of  Pultowa,  on  which  the  Swedes 
fought  with  a  valor  worthy  of  their  old  renown,  decided 
the  fate  of  Sweden  and  of  Russia.  In  their  repeated 
attempts  to  storm  the  Russian  redoubts  the  Swedish 
regiments  perished  under  the  bullets  of  renewed  masses 
of  defenders,  and  though  Charles,  carried  in  a  litter 
into  the  hottest  fire,  did  all  that  he  could  to  repel  the 
counter-attacks  of  the  Russians,  the  result  was  a  total 
rout  for  the  Swedish  force.  A  few  hundreds  of  men 
only  escaped  with  Charles  across  the  Dneiper,  into 


176  MODERN  EUROPE 

what  was  then  Turkish  territory.  The  Czar  cried  out, 
in  the  joy  of  complete  success,  that  "the  foundations 
of  St.  Petersburg  at  last  stood  firm."  His  port  on  the 
Baltic  was  secure;  all  fear  from  Sweden  was  at  an  end; 
the  Russian  army  stood  forth,  in  the  face  of  Europe, 
as  a  disciplined,  efficient,  victorious,  and  self-reliant 
array. 

After  a  stay  of  some  years  in  Turkey,  and  vain  efforts 
to  recover  his  position  by  the  Sultan's  aid,  Charles  XII 
returned  to  Sweden  in  1714,  and  in  1718  was  killed, 
during  a  war  with  Norway,  at  the  siege  of  Frederiks- 
hall.  It  has  always  been  believed  that  the  cannon-ball 
which  killed  him  as  it  grazed  his  head  was  murderously 
fired  from  the  Swedish  works.  What  is  certain  is  that 
the  brave,  rash,  obstinate,  just,  and  chivalrous  Charles 
of  Sweden — a  man  of  great  virtues  and  great  faults, 
unduly  elated  by  success,  but  not  broken  by  misfortune 
— was  found  leaning,  dead,  against  the  parapet,  with 
his  hand  on  his  sword,  and  the  portrait  of  the  great 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  with  a  prayer-book,  in  his  pocket. 
Since  his  return  from  Turkey,  Charles  had  given  signs 
of  a  chastened  spirit  and  more  enlightened  aims.  He 
was  more  gentle  and  moderate  in  demeanor,  more  ready 
to  use  policy  than  force,  and  was  full  of  plans  for  improv- 
ing the  navy  and  the  commerce  of  his  country.  With 
his  death  died  Sweden's  hopes  of  ranking  as  a  leading 
power  in  Europe. 

Sweden  now  yielded  territory  on  all  sides  to  her 
neighbors.  The  Duchy  of  Bremen  was  given  up  to 
George  I  of  Hanover  and  England,  lands  on  the  South- 
ern Baltic  coast  to  Prussia,  and,  after  war  with  Russia, 
the  treaty  of  Nystadt  (a  town  on  the  Southwest  coast 
of  Finland,  near  the  Aland  Isles)  was  concluded  with 
Peter  in  1721.  By  this  arrangement  Sweden  ceded  to 


THE  RISE  OF  RUSSIA  177 

the  new  Northern  Power,  Livonia,  Esthonia,  and  other 
territory  southeast  of  the  Baltic.  In  1743,  after  more 
unsuccessful  war  with  Russia,  Sweden  lost  part  of  Fin- 
land under  the  Treaty  of  Abo,  and  much  anarchy  was 
endured  at  home  from  oligarchic  rivalries  which  almost 
suppressed  monarchical  power.  Gustavus  III,  who  had 
restored  the  royal  authority  and  established  a  consti- 
tution, was  assassinated  by  a  conspiracy  of  nobles  in 
1792.  In  1809,  after  war  with  Russia,  Sweden  lost  the 
rest  of  Finland,  the  Aland  Isles,  and  other  territory. 
In  1810  the  present  Swedish  royal  family  came  near 
to  the  throne  in  the  election  by  the  Swedish  Parliament 
of  Bernadotte,  one  of  Napoleon's  marshals,  as  Crown 
Prince,  and  he  became  King  of  Sweden  as  Charles  XIV 
in  1818.  Under  him  Sweden  made  great  advances  in 
trade  and  agriculture.  Norway  had  been  yielded  by 
Denmark  to  Sweden  under  the  treaty  of  Kiel  in  1814, 
and  Sweden  thus  became  mistress  of  the  whole  Scandi- 
navian peninsula,  having  lost  all  other  outlying  posses- 
sions. The  present  King  of  Sweden  (1899),  Oscar  II, 
is  a  grandson  of  Bernadotte. 

In  1721,  after  the  Peace  of  Nystadt,  Peter  assumed 
the  title  of  Emperor  of  all  the  Russias,  and  was  styled 
by  his  Senate  of  nobles  "the  Great,"  and  "Father  of 
His  Country."  The  title  amounted  to  a  claim  over  all 
the  Russian  Provinces  held  by  Poland,  and  gave  great 
offense  to  the  German  Emperors  of  the  West.  In  1723 
Peter  founded  the  Academy  of  Sciences  at  St.  Peters- 
burg, and  died  in  1725,  leaving  the  throne  to  his  widow, 
Catharine  I.  Launched  fairly  on  her  new  career,  Rus- 
sia has  henceforth  a  history  of  conquest  and  annexation 
to  East,  and  South,  and  West  of  her  already  vast 
dominion.  Her  acquisitions  from  Sweden  have  been 
already  named. 

VOI,.  2—13 


178  MODERN  EUROPE 

The  greatest  sovereign  of  Russia,  next  to  Peter  the 
Great,  was  the  Empress  Catharine  II,who  is  the  subject 
of  a  sketch  in  the  volume,  "World's  Famous  Women." 
She  reigned  with  great  ability,  energy,  and  success  from 
1762  to  1796,  assisted  by  her  Minister  and  General, 
Potemkin  (in  power  from  1776  to  1791),  and  her  famous 
Field  Marshal,  Suwarof  (or  Suwarrow).  War  with 
Turkey  from  1768  to  1774,  ended  by  the  Peace  of  Kain- 
ardji  (in  Bulgaria),  opened  to  Russia  the  navigation  of 
the  Black  Sea,  and  gave  up  the  chief  ports  on  the  Sea 
of  Azov,  and  Kinburn,  on  the  open  Euxine,  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Dneiper.  Catharine  had  already  taken 
from  the  Tartars  and  Circassians  the  territory  between 
the  Don,  the  Volga,  and  the  Caucasus,  on  the  highway 
to  Asia  Minor,  and  she  now  acquired  the  great  outlet 
into  Asia  by  the  Caucasus  range — the  Pass  of  Darial. 
It  is  to  be  specially  noted  as  to  this  important  Treaty  of 
Kainardji,  which  is  a  monument  to  Russian  diplomatic 
skill,  that  to  the  Empress  of  Russia  was  hereby  secured 
the  right  to  protect  the  Greek  religion  and  its  Churches 
in  Turkey.  It  is  well  known  what  is  implied  in,  and  has 
followed  from,  this  crafty  stipulation. 

The  Tartars  of  the  South  were  subdued  in  1783,  the 
Crimea  was  annexed,  and  the  fortress  of  Kherson  was 
built  on  the  Dneiper  to  strengthen  the  position  of  Rus- 
sia on  the  Black  Sea.  In  1787  the  war  with  Turkey 
was  renewed,  and  Catharine  made  her  entry  into  Kher- 
son under  a  triumphal  arch,  which  bore,  in  Greek 
Characters,  the  threatening  legend,  "The  way  to  Byzan- 
tium." Suwarof  now  displayed  his  bravery  and  skill 
in  repeated  defeats  of  the  Turks,  crowning  his  work 
in  1790  by  the  renowned  and  sanguinary  storming  of 
Ismail,  on  the  northernmost  of  the  three  streams  of  the 
Danubian  mouth.  The  Peace  of  Jassy,  in  1792, 


THE  RISE  OF  RUSSIA  179 

strengthened  the  position  of  Russia  by  confirming  pre- 
vious conquests,  and  by  making  the  Dniester  the  bound- 
ary between  the  Russian  and  Turkish  Empires.  As 
results  of  this  treaty,  the  fortresses  oi  Nicholaieff, 
Odessa,  and  Sebastopol  afterward  arose. 

The  progress  of  Russia  westward  during  the  reign 
of  Catharine  was  not  less  remarkable.  Disunion  and 
anarchy  had  reduced  Poland  to  abject  weakness,  and  in 
1772  Catharine  of  Russia,  Frederick  the  Great  of  Prus- 
sia, and  the  Empress  of  Austria  joined  in  the  first  parti- 
tion of  Poland,  sharing  certain  provinces  among  them. 
In  1793  Russia  again  attacked  Poland,  Suwarof  forced 
his  way  to  Warsaw,  and  a  second  partition  was  made 
between  Russia  and  Prussia.  In  1795  Poland  ceased  to 
exist  as  an  independent  State,  by  the  division  of  all 
her  remaining  territory  between  the  above  three  Powers. 
It  must  be  remembered,  with  reference  to  a  matter  on 
which  much  false  sentiment  and  wasted  wrath  have  been 
expended,  that  the  conduct  of  the  Polish  Nation  had 
made  her  continued  existence  as  a  separate  State  impos- 
sible, and  her  extinction  necessary  for  the  peace  and 
comfort  of  her  neighbors,  and  that,  as  regards  Russia, 
most  of  her  share  in  the  partitions  was  territory  inhab- 
ited by  Russians  who  were  members  of  the  Greek 
Church,  and  had  been  conquered  by  Poland  in  the  time 
of  Russia's  weakness.  The  close  of  the  Eighteenth  Cen- 
tury saw  Russia  brought,  by  the  conquest  of  Poland, 
into  the  middle  of  the  Continent,  and  into  the  thick  of 
European  affairs. 


PRUSSIA  AND  FREDERICK  THE  GREAT 

The  Prussian  monarchy,  the  youngest,  and  one  of  the 
greatest,  of  the  chief  European  states,  sprang  from  a 
humble  origin.  Her  rise  to  first-rate  importance  in  the 
European  system,  and  her  contest  with  Austria  for  a  posi- 
tion of  equality  in  Central  Europe,  are  connected  with 
some  of  the  chief  events  of  the  Eighteenth  Century. 
About  the  beginning  of  the  Fifteenth  Century  the  mar- 
graviate  of  Brandenburg  was  bestowed  by  the  Emperor 
Sigismund  on  the  noble  family  of  Hohenzollern.  In  the 
Sixteenth  Century  that  family  embraced  the  Lutheran 
doctrines.  It  obtained  from  the  King  of  Poland,  early 
in  the  Seventeenth  Century,  the  investiture  of  the  Duchy 
of  Prussia.  Even  after  this  accession  of  territory,  the 
chiefs  of  the  house  of  Hohenzollern  hardly  ranked  with 
the  electors  of  Saxony  and  Bavaria.  .  The  soil  of  Bran- 
denburg was  for  the  most  part  sterile.  Even  round  Ber- 
lin, the  capital  of  the  province,  and  round  Potsdam,  the 
favorite  residence  of  the  Margraves,  the  country  was  a 
desert.  In  some  places  the  deep  sand  could  with  diffi- 
culty be  forced  by  assiduous  tillage  to  yield  thin  crops  of 
rye  and  oats.  In  other  places  the  ancient  forests,  from 
which  the  conquerors  of  the  Roman  Empire  had  descended 
on  the  Danube,  remained  untouched  by  the  hand  of  man. 
In  1657,  under  Frederick  William  I,  who  was  called  the 
Great  Elector,  the  Duchy  of  Prussia  became  independent 
of  Poland,  and  this  was  the  beginning  of  Prussia's  great- 
ness. The  Peace  of  Westphalia  gave  him  several  valu- 
able possessions  in  Germany;  and  his  son,  in  the  year  1700, 
became  the  first  King  of  Prussia,  as  Frederick  I.  Fred- 

180 


PRUSSIA  AND  FREDERICK  181 

erick  William,  his  successor,  reigned  from  1713  to  1740, 
and  is  notable  for  having-  drilled  and  disciplined  a  large 
and  powerful  army,  far  superior  in  exactness  of  training 
and  equipment  to  the  best  troops  of  England  and  France. 
This  was  the  instrument  which,  in  the  hands  of  his  son, 
Frederick  the  Great,  made  Prussia  one  of  the  chief  mili- 
tary monarchies  of  Europe. 

Frederick  II  of  Prussia  was  the  greatest  sovereign  of 
the  Eighteenth  Century,  and  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
men  of  modern  times.  His  military  exploits  are  told 
in  the  volume,  "Great  Warriors."  Born  in  1713,  he 
became  King  of  Prussia  in  1740,  and  ruled  till  his  death 
in  1786.  He  soon  drew  to  himself  the  eyes  of  all  Europe, 
and  remained  till  the  last  one  of  the  great  arbiters  of  all 
political  questions  disputed  therein,  in  the  cabinet  or  on 
the  battlefield.  The  chief  feature  of  his  strongly  marked, 
now  stern,  now  mocking  visage,  was  his  wonderful  bluish- 
gray  eyes,  which,  says  Mirabeau,  a  kindred  spirit,  "fas- 
cinated you,  at  the  bidding  of  his  great  soul,  with  seduc- 
tion or  with  terror."  His  character  was  full  of  energy, 
sound  sense,  vigilance,  penetration,  force,  and  endurance; 
he  was  the  greatest  General  of  his  age,  placed  by  Napo- 
leon's own  deliberate  opinion  "in  the  first  rank  among 
generals;"  as  a  statesman  in  foreign  affairs  he  was  most 
sagacious;  as  an  administrator  in  home  affairs  he  was  tol- 
erant, effective,  and  anxious  to  be  just  and  wise,  but 
spoiled  much  by  the  meddling  spirit  induced  by  a  dicta- 
torial temper  and  a  restlessly  active  mind.  He  received, 
on  his  accession,  the  rule  of  States  with  a  population  little 
exceeding  2,000,000;  at  his  death  he  left  a  Kingdom 
increased  by  nearly  30,000  square  miles  of  territory  and 
4,000,000  people.  A  great  treasure  was  in  the  pub- 
lic coffers ;  an  army  of  200,000  men  was  under  the  colors ; 
Prussia  was  distinguished  in  Europe  for  military  skill  and 


1 82  MODERN  EUROPE 

efficiency,  for  industry,  wealth,  and  science.  Agriculture, 
the  arts,  manufactures,  commerce,  and  the  laws  had  all 
been  encouraged,  extended,  or  reformed  by  the  unwearied 
care  of  the  creator  of  the  greatness  of  Prussia. 

On  the  death  of  the  Emperor  Charles  VI  of  Austria, 
in  1740,  his  hereditary  dominions — the  Archduchy  of  Aus- 
tria, the  Kingdoms  of  Hungary  and  Bohemia,  and  other 
territories — passed  to  his  daughter  Maria  Theresa,  known 
then  as  the  Queen  of  Hungary.  While  the  election  to  the 
Empire  was  in  dispute,  the  struggle  known  as  the  War 
of  the  Austrian  Succession  began  in  an  attack  of  Prussia, 
Bavaria,  France,  and  Spain  on  Austria,  helped  by  Eng- 
land and  Holland.  The  Prussian  King  seized  Silesia, 
defeated  the  Austrians  in  several  engagements,  and  ulti- 
mately retained  Silesia,  when  peace  was  made  in  1745, 
acknowledging  Francis  of  Lorraine,  husband  of  Maria 
Theresa,  as  the  duly-elected  Emperor  of  Germany.  Maria 
Theresa  thus  became  known  as  the  Empress-Queen, 
through  her  husband's  title  and  her  own  rank  in  Hungary. 

For  eleven  years  of  peace  (1745-1756)  Frederick 
devoted  himself  to  the  internal  improvement  of  his  King- 
dom, and  to  the  perfecting  of  his  army  for  the  struggle 
which  he  knew  to  be  coming,  and  which  proved  to  be  one 
for  very  life  or  death  to  the  Prussian  monarchy.  This 
great  struggle  lasted  from  1756  to  1763,  and  was  the 
result  of  a  combination  against  Prussia  by  Austria,  France, 
Russia,  Saxony,  and  Sweden,  in  which  the  confederates 
aimed  at  the  dismemberment  and  destruction  of  the  rising 
power.  In  Britain  alone  did  Frederick  find  a  friend, 
through  George's  desire  to  protect  Hanover,  which  cost 
England  the  loss  of  Minorca,  then  thought  more  impor- 
tant than  Gibraltar.  The  details  of  this  exciting  contest 
waged  with  consummate  skill  and  heroic  determination  by 
the  great  Frederick  are  told  in  the  volume,  "Famous  War- 


PRUSSIA  AND  FREDERICK  183 

riors."  Out  of  a  war  in  which  1,000,000  men  are  reck- 
oned to  have  fallen,  in  which  the  Prussian  capital  had 
been  more  than  once  taken  and  plundered  by  the  foe,  and 
much  of  his  territory  had  become  a  waste,  Frederick 
emerged  safe  and  glorious,  having  given  an  example 
unrivaled  in  history  of  what  capacity  and  resolution  can 
effect  against  the  greatest  superiority  of  power  and  the 
utmost  spite  of  fortune.  By  the  Peace  of  Hubertsburg, 
signed  in  February,  1763,  between  Prussia,  the  Emperor, 
and  Saxony,  Frederick  was  finally  left  in  possession  of 
the  provinces  of  Glatz  and  Silesia,  and  the  Prussian  mon- 
archy thus  took  its  place  among  the  first  powers  of  Europe. 
For  many  years  after  Hubertsburg  Frederick  was 
engaged  in  repairing  the  losses  of  the  Seven  Years'  War, 
and  he  was  concerned  in  no  more  great  contests.  In  1 772, 
he  had  a  share  in  the  first  partition  of  Poland,  receiving 
the  whole  of  Polish  Prussia  (territory  ceded  by  the  Teu- 
tonic Order  of  Knights  in  the  Fifteenth  Century)  and  a 
part  of  Great  Poland.  In  1786  he  died  at  his  palace  of 
Sans  Souci,  after  a  reign  of  more  than  forty-six  years. 
He  left  the  scene  late  enough  to  enable  him  to  conclude 
a  commercial  treaty  with  the  young  United  States  of 
America,  and  just  before  the  outbreak  of  the  French  Revo- 
lution. 


PARLIAMENT  IN  POWER  IN  ENGLAND 

The  accession  of  the  House  of  Hanover  to  the  Brit- 
ish throne  marks  the  end  of  the  theory  of  the  divine  right 
of  Kings  so  far  as  England  is  concerned.  Anne  had 
ruled  by  a  better  title  than  that  of  George  I,  and  the  Elec- 
tor of  Hanover  was  not  the  heir  to  the  throne  by  the  law 
of  primogeniture.  His  title  rested  merely  upon  the  will 
of  Parliament.  All  of  the  Georges  were  dull  and  stupid, 
and  the  first  of  them  was  the  dullest.  He  knew  neither  a 
word  of  English  nor  a  single  article  of  the  Constitution. 
When  he  landed  the  people  welcomed  him  with  enthusi- 
asm; not  because  they  loved  him,  but  because  his  acces- 
sion meant  that  a  ruler  dictated  by  the  Nation's  conven- 
ience had  been  placed  upon  the  throne,  by  the  mere  force 
of  a  statute.  George  was  content  to  become  a  figurehead, 
reigning,  but  not  governing;  no  English  ruler  since  Anne 
has  exercised  the  veto.  Without  a  soldier  or  a  follower, 
he  allowed  Parliament  and  his  ministers  to  have  their 
own  way.  Thus,  in  his  reign,  government  by  Parliament 
became  fully  established.  But  Parliament  did  not  repre- 
sent the  Nation  and  under  the  first  two  Georges  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  Whigs  has  been  compared  to  the  rule  of 
the  Venetian  oligarchy.  For  twenty  years  Sir  Robert 
Walpole  ruled  by  the  cunning  way  in  which  'he  managed 
the  Commons.  Men  then  gained  seats  in  Parliament  in 
a  different  way  from  now.  Mere  villages  sent  members 
to  Parliament  and  in  large  towns  but  few  persons  had  the 
right  to  vote.  Landlords  controlled  the  villages,  called 
"rotten  boroughs,"  and  the  constituencies  were  bribed 
either  directly  or  indirectly.  The  seaports  were  nearly 

184 


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PARLIAMENT  IN  POWER  185 

always  with  the  ministry  from  commercial  reasons.  Such 
a  Parliament  was  easily  managed  by  Walpole,  who  not 
only  gave  places,  pensions,  and  peerages  in  payment  for 
votes,  but  resorted  to  direct  bribery  whenever  necessary. 
He  was  not  fhe  first  to  use  this  means  of  gaining  votes,  but 
is  said  to  have  used  it  more  than  any  other  minister  did. 
It  was  begun  in  Charles  H's  reign  and  first  became  com- 
mon in  that  of  William  III,  when  the  good  will  of  the 
Lower  House  was  seen  to  be  needful  to  the  King's  min- 
isters. It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  people  were  with- 
out influence,  for  they  only  had  to  speak  out  very  strongly 
to  get  what  they  wished.  They  were  seldom  in  earnest 
about  anything,  however,  and  cared  little  how  things 
went  in  the  State.  England  in  Walpole's  day  was  grow- 
ing rich.  Englishmen  were  bluff  and  independent  and 
in  their  ways  coarse  and  unmannerly.  Their  life  was  the 
life  depicted  on  the  canvas  of  Hogarth  and  the  pages  of 
Fielding. 

During  Walpole's  time  the  English  Constitution  was 
shaped  by  him  into  what  it  is  practically  now.  The  cabi- 
net system  became  formed.  By  the  Cabinet,  a  word  which 
is  technically  unknown  to  any  act  of  Parliament  or  in 
official  proceedings,  is  meant  a  committee  of  the  legislative 
body  consisting  of  the  ministers,  nominally  nominated  by 
the  crown  but  really  responsible  to  Parliament,  upon  whose 
consent  it  owes  its  existence.  While  the  ministry  retains 
the  confidence  of  the  parliamentary  majority,  that  major- 
ity supports  them  against  opposition  and  rejects  every 
motion  which  is  likely  to  embarrass  them.  If  the  par- 
liamentary majority  are  dissatisfied  with  the  way  in  which 
affairs  are  conducted  they  have  merely  to  declare  that  they 
have  ceased  to  trust  the  ministry  and  to  ask  for  a  minis- 
try whom  they  can  trust.  By  the  party  system,  which 
owes  its  development  to  this  period,  an  organized  body 


186  MODERN  EUROPE 

of  men  will  always  be  found  to  succeed  them.  From  the 
days  of  the  Stuarts,  when  the  Constitutional  struggle 
began,  there  have  been  two  parties. in  Great  Britain,  which, 
whether  under  the  name  of  Roundhead  and  Cavalier, 
Whig  and  Tory,  or  Liberal  and  Conservative,  have  usually 
stood  for  the  same  ideas.  The  Tories  have  striven  to 
limit  the  authority  of  the  people  and  the  Whigs  that  of 
the, crown.  This  struggle  has  taken  many  forms,  and 
often  the  parties  may  seem  to  change  position  on  their 
great  fundamental  principle. 

George  II  succeeded  to  the  throne  in  1727  and  Walpole 
continued  to  hold  office.  During  his  ministry  England 
was  prosperous,  for  he  avoided  foreign  war  and  devoted 
himself  to  the  strengthening  of  English  industries.  The 
popular  demand  for  war  against  Spain  in  the  struggle  of 
the  Austrian  Succession  brought  about  the  downfall  of 
Walpole' s  ministry.  Henry  Pelham,  who  succeeded  WaJ- 
pole,  had  no  principles  of  government  whatever,  and  he 
offered  a  place  to  every  man  of  parliamentary  skill  or  influ- 
ence. There  was  no  opposition  in  Parliament  because 
he  was  ready  to  do  anything  called  for  by  any  one  who 
had  sufficient  power  to  make  himself  dangerous. 

As  long  as  Walpole  was  in  power  and  England  at 
peace  with  foreign  States  the  Stuarts  saw  no  chance  of 
winning  a  throne  by  invasion  and  revolt.  The  war  with 
France  and  Spain  seemed  to  afford  an  opening.  The 
absence  of  British  troops  on  the  Continent  seemed  to  give 
Charles  Edward  Stuart  his  chance,  and,  in  1745,  the  tall, 
handsome,  blue-eyed  and  curly-haired  adventurer  landed 
in  Scotland.  The  people  were  not  ready  for,  nor  wished  a 
reversion  to  the  doctrine  of  divine  right  of  kings  and  abso- 
lute monarchy,  although  he  was  followed  by  many  of  the 
highland  clans,  always  ready  to  draw  the  sword  against 
the  constituted  authorities  of  the  lowlands;  and  even  in 


PARLIAMENT  IN  POWER  187 

the  lowlands,  and  especially  in  Edinburgh,  he  found  adher- 
ents who  still  felt  the  sting  inflicted  by  the  suppression  of 
the  national  independence  of  Scotland.  The  English 
army  was  in  a  chaotic  condition  and  Charles  Edward 
inflicted  a  complete  defeat  on  the  force  which  met  him  at 
Prestonpans.  Before  the  end  of  the  year  the  victor,  at 
the  head  of  5,000  men,  had  advanced  to  Derby.  But  he 
found  no  support  in  England  and  the  mere  numbers 
brought  against  him  compelled  him  to  retreat,  to  find 
defeat  at  Culloden  in  the  following  year  ( 1746) . 

The  most  important  event  of  the  early  Georgian  period 
was  the  famous  religious  revival  called  the  Wesleyan 
movement,  or  Methodism.  In  this  age  of  reason,  as  men 
had  proudly  called  it,  those  who  cared  for  religion  or  mor- 
ality, had  forgotten  that  man  was  an  imaginative  and 
emotional  being.  Defenders  of  Christianity  and  of  Deism 
alike  appealed  to  the  reason  alone.  Enthusiasm  was 
treated  as  a  folly  or  crime  and  earnestness  of  every  kind 
was  branded  with  the  name  of  enthusiasm.  The  higher 
order  of  minds  dwelt  with  preference  upon  the  beneficent 
wisdom  of  the  Creator.  The  lower  order  of  minds 
treated  religion  as  a  kind  of  life  assurance  against  the 
inconvenience  of  eternal  death.  Upon  such  a  system  as 
this  human  nature  was  certain  to  avenge  itself.  The 
preaching  of  John  Wesley  (1703-1791 )  and  George  Whit- 
field  appealed  direct  to  the  emotions.  They  preached  the 
old  Puritan  doctrine  of  conversion  and  called  upon  each 
other  individual — not  to  understand,  or  to  admire  or  to 
act,  but  vividly  to  realize  the  love  and  mercy  of  God.  In 
all  this  there  was  nothing  new.  What  was  new  was  that 
Wesley  added  an  organization  in  which  each  of  his  fol- 
lowers unfolded  to  one  another  the  secrets  of  their  hearts 
and  became  accountable  to  his  fellows.  Large  as  the  num- 
bers of  the  Wesleyans  ultimately  became  their  influence 


i88  MODERN  EUROPE 

is  not  to  be  measured  by  their  numbers.  Wesleyanisra 
was  a  reaction  against  that  decline  of  religious  feeling  and 
morality  which  was  due  in  some  measure  to  the  policy  of 
Walpole  and  the  Whigs  to  the  Church.  Political  appoint- 
ments to  high  ecclesiastical  posts  had  resulted  in  non-resi- 
dent bishops,  a  careless  and  unspiritual  clergy,  and  a  low 
moral  tone  among  the  laity.  Literature  and  the  drama 
suffered,  political  corruption  increased,  the  poor  were 
neglected,  atheism  and  agnosticism  grew.  The  reaction, 
which  John  Wesley  and  George  Whitfield  headed,  led  to 
the  development  of  spirituality  among  the  clergy  and  pre- 
pared the  way  for  that  recognition  of  the  need  of  high 
political  morality  which  is  associated  with  the  name  of 
William  Pitt. 

Pitt  was  in  some  sense  to  the  political  life  of  England 
what  Wesley  was  to  its  religious  life.  He  brought  no 
new  political  ideals  to  men's  minds  but  he  ruled  them  by 
force  of  character  and  the  sense  of  his  purity.  His  wea- 
pons were  trust  and  confidence.  He  appealed  to  the  pat- 
riotism of  his  fellow  countrymen,  to  their  imaginative 
love  for  the  national  greatness  and  did  not  appeal  in  vain. 
He  perceived  instinctively  that  a  large  number  of  those 
who  took  greedily  the  bribes  of  Walpole  and  Pelham  took 
them  not  because  they  loved  money  any  better  than  their 
country,  but  because  they  had  no  conception  that  their 
country  had  any  need  of  them.  It  was  a  truth  but  not 
the  whole  truth.  The  great  Whig  families  rallied  under 
Newcastle  and  drove  Pitt  from  office  (1757).  But  New- 
castle could  not  govern  without  Pitt's  energy.  At  last  a 
compromise  was  effected  and  Newcastle  undertook  the 
work  of  bribing  while  Pitt  undertook  the  work  of  govern- 
ing. It  was  Pitt  who  carried  to  a  successful  conclusion 
the  war  with  France,  which  arose  between  the  colonists 
of  the  two  Nations  in  America,  and  which  war  got  mixed 


PARLIAMENT  IN  POWER  189 

up  with  the  Seven  Years'  War  in  Germany.  In  India 
France  and  England  were  fighting  for  Asiatic  wealth. 
England  greatly  enlarged  her  transatlantic  possessions  by 
the  war  with  France,  but  lost  them  through  the  arrogant 
attitude  of  George  III  toward  the  colonists.  There  is  no 
need  to  dwell  on  this  war  and  its  causes,  which  are 
described  in  the  volume  of  American  History  in  this 
series.  But  it  was  not  a  popular  war  in  England  and 
was  opposed  by  the  ablest  English  statesmen  of  that  day, 
just  as  those  of  to-day  admit  the  justice  of  the  Americans' 
greivances.  The  struggle  was  one,  for  Great  Britain, 
of  very  existence  as  a  colonial  and  naval  power.  France, 
Spain,  and  Holland  were  combined  against  her  and  it  was 
largely  that  she  might  devote  herself  entirely  to  them  that 
the  war  in  America  was  discontinued,  without  regret,  after 
the  surrender  of  Cornwallis. 

George  III  reigned  sixty  years,  during  the  greater  part 
of  which  he  was  insane.  In  1760,  at  the  age  of  22  years, 
he  came  to  the  throne,  and  inaugurated  a  new  epoch  in 
the  history  of  English  monarchy.  A  born  Englishman, 
and  English  in  his  tastes  and  habits,  his  virtues  and  his 
faults,  he  was  welcome  as  a  ruler  to  all  classes  of  his 
subjects.  George,  unlike  his  father  and  grandfather,  was 
attached  to  England,  spoke  English  well,  and  prided  him- 
self on  being  every  inch  an  Englishman.  It  was  to  his 
mother  that  he  owed  his  desire  to  govern  as  well  as  reign. 
"George,  be  king,"  was  the  phrase  which  she  repeated, 
and  the  training  which  he  received  made  him  give  heed 
to  it.  George  had  formed  an  exalted  idea  of  his  own 
prerogative  and  was  determined  to  win  back  for  the  crown 
some  of  its  former  influence  and  authority  in  the  govern- 
ment. He  had  been  taught  by  Bolingbroke  that  a  sov- 
ereign should,  like  Frederick  the  Great,  take  an  active  part 
in  public  affairs.  He  had  been  trained  to  regard  the 


190  MODERN  EUROPE 

iWhigs  as  usurpers  of  his  royal  authority,  and  he  hoped  by 
abolishing  party  connections  and  party  government  to 
become  the  actual  ruler  in  England.  His  schemes  were 
directed  to  the  establishment  of  a  system  of  personal  rule 
under  which  all  the  threads  of  the  administration  should 
center  in  the  royal  closet.  He  undertook  the  task  of  over- 
turning the  great  Whig  party,  by  a  lavish  expenditure  of 
public  money,  by  the  use  of  places  and  pensions,  and  by 
the  creation  of  a  band  of  men  known  as  the  "King's 
Friends,"  who  were  always  at  hand  to  do  his  bidding. 

For  this  task  George,  in  spite  of  his  ignorance,  nar- 
row-mindedness and  short-siglitedness,  was  not  unfitted. 
His  confidence  in  himself,  his  patience,  his  laborious  atten- 
tion to  details,  his  activity  and  devotion  to  business  made 
him  a  formidable  foe  in  his  long  struggle  with  the  Whigs, 
and  account  for  his  victory.  He  set  out  with  the  inten- 
tion of  securing  certain  objects — the  revival  of  the  prerog- 
ative, the  right  to  choose  his  own  ministers,  the  destruc- 
tion of  government  by  party  and  the  overthrow  of  the 
Whig  oligarchy.  After  ten  years  of  desperate  conflict 
George  to  a  great  extent  obtained  his  desires.  In  Lord 
North  he  found  a  minister  after  his  own  heaft.  He  had 
for  a  time  broken  up  parties  and  he  had  instituted  depart- 
mental government  in  place  of  the  cabinet  system — the 
growth  of  which  Walpole  'had  so  carefully  fostered.  In 
1770  "there  was  great  danger,"  says  Lecky  in  his  History 
of  England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,  "that  the  crown 
would  regain  all,  or  nearly  all,  the  power  it  had  lost  dur- 
ing the  revolution."  A  circumstance  that  aided  George 
was  that  the  House  of  Commons  did  not  represent  Eng- 
land and  the  Nation  had  little  or  no  influence  in  the  for- 
mation of  a  ministry.  Parliament  was  amenable  to  cor- 
rupt influences  and  during  the  early  years  of  George  Ill's 
reign  Parliamentary  corruption  was  greater  than  under 


PARLIAMENT  IN  POWER  191 

Walpole,  while  the  Whig  party  was  split  into  several  small 
groups.  It  was  during  the  administration  of  Lord  North, 
when  the  King  was  at  the  height  of  his  power,  that  the 
colonies  won  their  independence.  The  determination  of 
the  King  not  to  compromise  with  those  whom  he  termed 
rebels,  prevented  compromise  when  compromise  was  pos- 
sible. The  subserviency  of  Parliament  and  the  acquies- 
ence  of  the  country  enabled  the  King  to  have  his  own  way. 
.  In  December,  1783,  William  Pitt,  son  of  the  former 
minister  and  then  in  his  twenty- fourth  year,  formed  an  ad- 
ministration in  which  he  was  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer 
as  well  as  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury;  and  he  remained  in 
office  for  eighteen  years.  The  crushing  victory  of  his 
party  at  the  general  election  in  1784  was  a  triumph  for 
the  King  as  much  as  for  Pitt.  From  that  time  there  was 
an  end  to  government  by  the  supremacy  of  the  old  Whig 
families.  The  Tory  party  had  been  consolidated  and  was 
prepared  to  give  effect  to  the  policy  of  George  III.  The 
struggle  had  been  long  and  severe.  John  Wilkes  had 
taken  part  in  it  and  by  his  arrest  he  had  led  to  the  aboli- 
tion of  general  warrants.  A  writer,  whose  letters  were 
signed  "Junius,"  had  denounced  the  ministers  whom  the 
King  had  trusted,  and  had  warned  the  King  himself  that 
as  his  title  to  the  crown  "was  acquired  by  one  revolution 
it  might  be  lost  by  another."  Pitt  felt  himself  the  minis- 
ter of  Commons  rather  than  of  the  King,  and  like  Wal- 
pole he  remained  sole  and  supreme  minister.  The  Nation 
was  with  him  because  lie  was  honest  and  he  was  never 
accused  of  corruption,  even  when  millions  were  passing 
through  his  hands.  It  is  true  that  he  had  his  vices — which 
were  an  addiction  to  port  wine  and  a  way  of  running  into 
debt.  He  ruled  absolutely  over  the  cabinet  and  was  at 
once  the  favorite  of  King,  Parliament,  and  people.  With 
such  a  man  at  the  helm,  the  King  could  no  longer  have 


i92  MODERN  EUROPE 

his  way  as  before,  and  the  power  of  the  monarch  declined. 
Finance,  commerce,  and  parliamentary  reform  were  the 
chief  objects  which  he  devoted  himself  to.  In  the  late 
wars  the  debt  had  grown  till  it  reached  about  £250,000,000. 
Taxes  had  been  laid  on  at  haphazard  to  meet  the  needs 
as  they  arose.  Pitt  set  before  himself  the  reduction  of  the 
debt  as  an  important  end  of  all  financial  measures.  He 
saved  much  for  the  country  and  encouraged  honest  deal- 
ing by  his  plan  of  borrowing  money  by  public  contract, 
and  so  getting  the  lowest  possible  interest.  By  lowering 
the  heavy  duties  on  tea,  wine,  and  spirits,  which  were  fast 
handing  over  the  trade  of  the  country  to  smugglers,  he 
lessened  smuggling,  improved  trade  and  raised  the  reve- 
nue. The  increase  of  revenue  which  followed  his  new 
scheme  of  duties  soon  allowed  him  to  take  off  some  of 
the  worst  taxes — among  others,  those  on  retail  shops  and 
on  women  servants.  His  attempt  to  secure  free  trade 
between  England  and  Ireland  was  unsuccessful  as  was  his 
scheme  for  the  abolition  of  "rotten  boroughs." 

During  the  last  eight  years  of  his  ministry  Pitt's  man- 
agement of  foreign  affairs  raised  England  from  the  iso- 
lation and  depression  in  which  he  found  her  in  1774.  He 
was  the  first  of  English  ministers  to  recognize  the  great 
influence  which  the  Eastern  question  was  likely  to  have 
to  international  politics.  Owing  to  the  firm  and  pacific 
policy  of  Pitt,  the  outbreak  of  the  hostilities  with  France 
found  England  not  exhausted  by  wars  and  in  a  position 
to  take,  abroad,  a  leading  part  in  opposing  revolutionary 
principles.  The  Nation  which  Pitt  had  behind  him  was 
one  that  had  already  become  great  in  industry.  In  1776 
Adam  Smith  published  the  "Wealth  of  Nations."  In  1761 
the  Bridgewater  canal,  the  first  of  a  system  of  internal 
waterways,  was  opened.  In  1767  Hargreaves  produced 
the  spinning- jenny;  Arkwright's  spinning  machine  was 


PARLIAMENT  IN  POWER  193 

exhibited  in  1768;  Crompton's  mule  was  finished  in  1779; 
Cartwright  hit  upon  the  idea  of  the  power  loom  in  1784, 
though  it  was  not  brought  into  profitable  use  till  1801. 
The  Staffordshire  potteries  had  been  flourishing  under 
Wedgewood  since  1763,  and  the  improved  steam  engine 
was  brought  into  shape  by  Watt  in  1768.  Coke  of  Hoik- 
ham,  Robert  Blakewell,  and  the  Duke  of  Bedford  were 
busy  in  the  improvement  of  agriculture.  The  foundations 
were  laid  not  only  of  England's  future  greatness  in  politics 

but  in  industry. 
Voi..  2—13 


DECADENCE  OF  SOUTHERN  EUROPE 

The  fall  of  the  Ottoman  power  in  Europe  began  with 
the  Treaty  of  Carlowitz  in  1699,  and  during  the  Eight- 
eenth Century  Turkey  continued  to  decline.  A  gleam  of 
success  came  in  1715,  when  the  Turkish  arms  recovered 
the  Morea  from  Venice,  but  Austria  assisted  the  republic, 
and  Prince  Eugene's  victories  at  Peterwardein  and  Bel- 
grade in  1717  obliged  the  Sultan  to  give  up  Belgrade, 
with  a  part  of  Servia  and  Wallachia.  The  House  of  Aus- 
tria thus  gained  territory  at  Turkey's  expense.  The  Peace 
of  Passarowitz  in  1718  confirmed  Turkey  in  the  possession 
of  the  Morea  and  all  former  Venetian  territory  in  the 
East  except  the  Ionian  Islands,  and  the  long  contest 
between  Venice  and  the  Ottoman  power  thus  came  to  an 
end.  Another  change  came  in  1739,  when  Turkey  recov- 
ered Belgrade,  Servia,  and  Wallachia  from  Austria. 
Great  losses  of  Turkey  were  due  to  the  success  of  Russian 
arms,  and  that  the  frontier  of  Russia  was  fixed  at  the 
Dniester  by  the  Peace  of  Jassy  in  1792.  Internal  disunion 
and  misgovernment  were  at  the  same  time  weakening  the 
fabric  of  the  Ottoman  Empire,  and  the  rumblings  of  com- 
ing troubles  began  to  be  heard  in  Servia  and  Greece. 

The  Peace  of  Utrecht  in  1713  had  deprived  Spain  of 
her  outlying  territories  in  Europe,  giving  Naples, Sardinia, 
Parma,  Milan,  and  that  part  of  the  Netherlands  now 
known  as  Belgium,  to  Austria,  and  Sicily  to  Savoy. 
Under  the  rule  of  the  Bourbons  the  Spanish  Nation  finally 
lost  its  constitutional  rights,  the  last  sitting  of  the  Cortes 
being  held  in  Castile  in  1713,  and  in  Aragon  in  1720. 
Under  the  reign  of  Charles  III  (1759-1788),  much 

194 


advance  was  made  in  agriculture,  trade,  and  manufactures, 
and  the  population  rapidly  increased.  The  power  of  the 
Inquisition  was  restricted,  and  the  Jesuits  were  banished, 
with  the  confiscation  of  all  their  property,  in  1767. 

Portugal  was  much  injured  during  the  Sixteenth  Cen- 
tury through  the  influence  of  the  Inquisition  and  the  Jes- 
uits, and  toward  the  close  of  that  period  was  conquered  by 
Philip  II  of  Spain.  In  1640  the  Portuguese  regained 
their  independence,  but  their  indolence  in  previous  times 
had  given  over  the  carrying  trade  between  Europe  and  the 
East  to  the  Dutch,  who  also,  during  the  Seventeenth  Cen- 
tury, deprived  Portugal  of  her  valuable  settlements  in 
Guinea,  the  Moluccas,  Malacca,  and  Ceylon.  Portugal 
still  held  her  colonial  Empire  in  Brazil,  and  the  discovery 
of  gold  mines  there  led  to  the  conclusion  of  a  treaty  with 
England  in  1703,  since  which  time  the  countries  have  been 
on  friendly  and  intimate  terms.  Under  the  rule  of  Joseph 
I  (1750-1777),  a  vigorous  reformer  arose  in  the  person 
of  the  able  Marquis  of  Pombal.  This  celebrated  states- 
man had  four  main  objects  in  view — the  expulsion  of  the 
Jesuits,  the  humiliation  of  the  greater  nobles,  the  restora- 
tion of  prosperity  to  Portugal,  and  the  establishment  of  the 
royal  authority  in  an  absolute  form.  The  country  was 
without  army,  navy,  commerce,  or  proper  agriculture. 
The  earthquake  which  destroyed  Lisbon  in  1755  was  a 
terrible  blow,  but  Pombal,  becoming  first  minister  in  1756, 
and  being  well  backed  by  the  King,  set  himself  bravely  to 
work.  He  swept  aside  all  opponents,  banished  the  Jesuits, 
and  took  away  their  lands  in  1759,  humbled  the  leading 
nobles,  made  laws  which  greatly  increased  the  royal  power, 
reorganized  the  army,  improved  the  schools,  and,  though 
he  lost  his  power  on  the  King's  death  in  1777,  effected 
permanent  good  in  the  introduction  of  enlightened  views, 
and  the  rousing  of  a  lethargic  people. 


196  MODERN  EUROPE 

Italy  remained,  during  the  Eighteenth  Century,  as  she 
had  long  been,  subject  to  foreign  domination,  or  split  up 
into  separate  republics  and  principalities.  Freedom  was 
extinct  and  national  feeling  had  well-nigh  faded  away. 
The  Popes  of  the  period  had  no  importance  as  temporal 
rulers.  The  different  States  were  bandied  to  and  fro,  by 
the  chances  and  intrigues  of  war  and  diplomacy,  between 
Austria,  Spain,  and  Savoy.  The  day  of  Venice  was  gone; 
some  national  life  lingered  yet  in  Corsica  and  Genoa.  The 
House  of  Savoy  alone  displayed  a  vigor  worthy  of  her 
past,  and  destined,  in  a  happier  age,  to  bring  about  great 
results  for  her  sovereigns  and  for  the  whole  Italian  penin- 
sula. Soon  after  the  Peace  of  Utrecht  (1713),  Victor 
Amadeus  II  of  Savoy  became  King  of  Sardinia,  and  his 
successor,  Emmanuel  III  (1730-1773),  received  an  acces- 
sion of  territory  on  the  mainland  after  the  war  of  the 
Austrian  Succession,  and  added  greatly  to  the  resources 
of  his  realm  by  his  own  wise  administration. 


THE    "AGE    OF    REASON" 

Art,  so  brilliant  in  the  Seventeenth  Century,  under- 
went an  eclipse  in  the  Eighteenth.  Painting,  sculpture, 
and  architecture  were  in  a  state  of  decay.  Art  seemed 
as  though  exhausted,  and  became  second-rate,  while 
society,  which  had  acquired  wealth,  sought  for  and 
encouraged  it  more  than  ever.  It  failed  through  imita- 
tion, and  was  less  earnest  because  society  itself  had  be- 
come more  frivolous,  and,  reacting  upon  art,  made  it  the 
expression  of  social  life.  An  age  of  transition — the 
close  of  the  movement  commenced  in  the  Fifteenth 
Century,  the  starting  point  of  a  new  revolution — the 
Eighteenth  Century  lived  on  the  past,  while  preparing 
for  the  future,  enjoyed  the  advantages  already  acquired 
and  dreamed  of  greater;  it  still  struggled  in  the  midst 
of  confusion  produced  by  the  conflict  of  modern  ideas 
with  the  shackles  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

It  was  an  age  of  discussion,  of  argument,  not  of  senti- 
ment. Now  art  lives  by  sentiment.  Skeptical  or  indif- 
ferent toward  religious  questions,  the  Eighteenth  Cen- 
tury was  no  longer  inspired  by  Christianity;  middle 
class  and  worldly,  it  had  lost  the  inspiration  of  nature; 
dry,  mocking,  and  frivolous,  it  had  not,  even  in  spite 
of  its  humanitarian  theories,  the  inspiration  of  the  heart. 

The  English  at  length  profited  by  the  lessons  of  the 
Italian  and  Flemish  artists.  In  the  Eighteenth  Century 
they  had,  if  not  a  school,  at  least  some  celebrated  artists. 
William  Hogarth  (1697-1764),  excellent  as  a  painter  of 
contemporary  manners,  and  as  a  moralist  in  art;  Rey- 
nolds (1723-1792),  supreme  in  portraiture,  and  not  less 

197 


198  MODERN  EUROPE 

distinguished  as  a  writer  on  art,  is  considered  the  first 
great  English  painter.  Gainsborough  (1727-1788), 
great  as  a  portrait  painter,  was  especially  the  founder 
of  the  English  school  of  landscape  painting,  of  which 
he  is  among  the  best  representatives.  Germany,  sterile 
since  Albert  Diirer  produced  Denney  (1685-1747). 

Art  was  developed  on  the  Continent  of  Europe 
mainly  in  the  department  of  music,  at  a  time  when  other 
arts  had  fallen  into  a  state  of  degeneracy  and  decay. 
Modern  music  owes  its  origin  to  religion  and  the 
Church,  Pope  Gregory  the  Great,  about  A.  D.  1600, 
being  the  great  musical  reformer  to  whom  a  system  of 
ecclesiastical  chanting  is  due.  Aretino,  an  Italian  Bene- 
dictine monk  of  the  Eleventh  Century,  is  said  to  have 
invented  the  present  musical  notation  by  means  of  points 
distributed  upon  lines  and  spaces,  and  to  have  taken  the 
names  of  the  notes — Re,  Mi,  Fa,  Sol,  etc — from,  the  first 
syllables  of  words  in  an  old  Latin  hymn.  Successive 
improvements  came  from  ingenious  minds — such  as  the 
descant  (or  combination  of  sounds  of  unequal  lengths, 
two  or  more  sounds  succeeding  one,  while  one  equal 
to  them  all  in  length  was  sustained),  afterward  called 
(in  the  Fourteenth  Century)  counterpoint,  with  its  many 
artistic  developments.  In  the  Sixteenth  Century  the 
Italian  master,  Palestrina,  who  died  in  1594,  proved 
himself  to  be  the  greatest  composer  the  world  had  yet 
seen.  It  was  he  who,  at  a  critical  time,  saved  music 
from  destruction  in  the  hands  of  the  theorists  (who  had 
divorced  sound  from  sense),  and  showed  that  the  art 
was  worthy  of  the  closest  union  with  the  inspirations  of 
the  poet.  He  produced  three  masses,  one  of  which 
remains  to  this  day  a  model  of  musical  composition. 
The  Italians  were  at  this  period  the  chief  masters  and 
interpreters  of  the  art  throughout  Europe,  except  in 


THE  "AGE  OF  REASON"  .  199 

England,  which  had  a  great  school  of  her  own,  headed 
by  Orlando  Gibbons.  The  Eighteenth  Century,  during 
which  the  harpsichord  became  the  pianoforte,  saw  Ger- 
many rise  to  the  highest  place,  which  she  has  since 
retained,  in  every  department  of  the  musical  art,  except 
singing.  There  Italy,  producing  the  most  beautiful  alto 
and  tenor  voices,  has  kept  the  supremacy.  German 
genius  has  so  developed  instrumental  music,  and  given 
to  its  forms  such  extent  and  variety,  that  a  new  world 
has  been  thereby  opened  to  musical  Europe.  Germany 
owes  much,  however,  to  her  Southern  rival.  Much  of 
the  sweetness  found,  united  with  native  strength,  in  the 
works  of  the  best  German  composers,  is  due  to  their 
study  of  the  Italian  masters. 

To  Gluck  (1714-1784),  the  great  German  composer, 
opera  is  indebted  for  its  splendor  and  dramatic  perfec- 
tion. The  first  opera  which  he  wrote  was  an  improve- 
ment on  the  existing  style.  His  fame  soon  became 
European,  and  in  1746  he  went  to  London,  where  he 
met  Handel,  but  soon  afterward  made  his  home  at 
Vienna,  and  continued  to  write  operas  with  great  suc- 
cess. His  "Orpheus  and  Eurydice,"  first  performed  in 
1762,  was  a  triumph  of  freshness  and  pathos.  His 
"Iphigenia  in  Aulis,"  "Armida,"and"Iphigenia  in  Tauris" 
written  for  the  Royal  Opera  of  Paris,  end  a  series  of 
works  which  were  a  source  of  inspiration  to  those  great 
masters,  Cherubini,  Mozart,  and  Beethoven.  The  com- 
positions of  John  Sebastian  Bach  (1685-1750),  chiefly 
religious,  consisted  of  cantatas  and  motets,  with  many 
pieces  for  the  piano  and  organ.  They  have  a  truly 
grand  and  original  inspiration.  His  own  eleven  sons 
were  all  distinguished  musicians. 

Joseph  Haydn  (1732-1809)  was  a  very  prolific  com- 
poser of  symphonies  for  full  orchestra,  chamber  music, 


200  ,  MODERN  EUROPE 

and  opera.  His  beautiful  oratorio,  the  "Creation,"  was 
produced  in  Vienna  in  March,  1799,  and  was  at  once 
successful. 

The  soul  of  John  Wolfgang  Mozart  (1756-1792) 
was  filled  with  music,  and  his  precocity  was  won- 
derful. In  his  fifth  year  he  wrote  a  concerto  for 
the  harpsichord,  in  perfect  accordance  with  musi- 
cal rules  and  of  great  difficulty.  In  his  tenth  year 
he  had  become  famous  all  over  Europe  as  a  player 
on  the  harpsichord,  and  could  execute  the  most 
difficult  music  at  sight.  At  twelve  years  of  age 
he  led,  in  presence  of  the  Imperial  Court  at  Vienna,  the 
performance  of  a  mass  from  his  own  pen.  In  his  four- 
teenth year  he  composed  his  first  opera,  "Mithridates," 
continued  to  pour  forth  masses,  serenades,  and  sym- 
phonies, and  settled  at  Vienna  in  1780.  His  "Figaro" 
appeared  in  1787,  at  Prague;  then,  shortly  afterward, 
his  immortal  "Don  Giovanni,"  his  "Cosi  Fan  Tutte" 
in  1790,  "II  Flauto  Magico"  in  1791,  and  the  "Clemenza 
di  Tito"  and  "Requiem"  in  1792,  the  year  of  his  death. 
His  instrumental  music — symphonies,  quartettes,  con- 
certos for  the  piano,  sonatas,  and  masses — is  beautiful 
beyond  the  reach  of  praise.  The  works  of  this  con- 
summate poet  in  musical  expression  charm  alike  the 
mere  lover  of  melody  and  the  accomplished  musician; 
there  was  nothing  he  did  not  know  and  display  in  the 
resources  of  his  art,  and  for  richness,  purity,  ease,  and 
depth — all  that  belongs  to  perfection  in  the  best  and 
highest  kind — he  remains,  as  he  was  esteemed  by  the 
best  judges  of  his  own  day,  the  Raphael  of  the  musical 
world. 

Another  precocious  genius  was  George  Frederick 
Handel  (1684-1759),  who  wrote  operas  soon  after  the 
age  of  twenty.  He  then  studied  in  Italy,  and  settled 


THE  "AGE  OF  REASON"  201 

in  England  in  1710.  His  anthems  and  organ  fugues 
would  alone  have  given  him  lasting  fame.  In  his  ora- 
torios Handel  is  supreme,  the  choruses  being  unequaled 
for  sublimity.  Among  the  chief  of  these  works,  pro- 
duced between  1731  and  1753,  are  "Israel  in  Egypt,"  the 
"Messiah,"  "Samson,"  and  "Judas  Maccabaeus."  Of  his 
other  compositions,  the  "Acis  and  Galatea,"  and  the  Det- 
tingen  "Te  Deum"  (written  to  celebrate  the  victory  of 
Dettingen  in  1743),  are  famous.  His  style  in  general 
shows  boldness,  strength,  spirit,  and  invention  of  the 
highest  order. 

England  and  Germany  were  unequal  to  the  task  of 
reviving  art,  exhausted,  as  it  was,  in  France,  in  Flanders, 
in  Holland,  as  well  as  in  Italy  and  Spain.  But  they  had 
an  important  share  in  the  scientific  and  literary  move- 
ment, the  most  honorable  characteristic  of  the  Eight- 
eenth Century,  and  the  first  step  toward  future  progress. 

A  family  of  savants,  natives  of  Switzerland,  but  set- 
tled in  Italy,  had,  during  the  Eighteenth  Century,  con- 
tinued the  mathematical  work  commenced  in  the  preced- 
ing Century;  these  were  the  Bernouilli,  who  devoted 
themselves  to  the  calculation  of  probabilities.  England 
boasts  of  many  distinguished  mathematicians.  Ger- 
many is  particularly  honored  by  Euler  (1707-1783), 
who,  although  born  at  Basle,  lived  at  St.  Petersburg  and 
Berlin.  He  wrote  for  a  Princess  of  Anhalt-Dessau, 
"Letters  Upon  Some  Subjects  of  Physics  and  Philos- 
ophy," which  brought  science  within  the  range  of  all. 
He  formulated  the  integral  calculus,  the  inverse  of  the 
differential  calculus.  The  small  Republic  of  Geneva, 
afterward  a  literary  center,  had  also  its  savants,  among 
others  Gabriel  Cramer,  author  of  an  "Introduction  to 
the  Analysis  of  Curved  Lines  in  Algebra,"  and  the 
Trembleys,  a  family  of  savants  like  the  Bernouilli. 


202  MODERN  EUROPE 

France  produced  brilliant  mathematicians.  D'Alem- 
bert,  deserted  as  a  child  by  his  parents,  was  gifted  with 
such  extraordinary  facility  for  calculations  that  at 
twenty-four  he  was  a  member  of  the  Academy  of  Sci- 
ence. He  wrote  a  "Treatise  Upon  the  Integral  Cal- 
culus," a  "Treatise  on  the  Equilibrium  and  Movement  of 
Fluids."  He  also  took  part  in  all  the  great  astronomical 
works. 

French,  German,  and  English  were  seized  with  the 
noble  emulation,  all  striving  to  formulate  with  precision 
the  laws  of  astronomy  that  had  been  dimly  seen  during 
the  preceding  Century.  In  England,  James  Bradley 
(1692-1762),  by  the  observation  of  a  slight  movement 
of  the  stars,  was  led  to  explain  it  by  the  mutation  of  the 
earth's  axis,  combined  with  that  of  the  light  of  the  stars. 
He  thus  discovered  the  cause  of  the  aberration  of  light, 
and  at  the  same  time  proved  the  truth  of  the  systems 
of  Copernicus  and  Galileo. 

Instruments  for  observation  were  then  perfected, 
and  William  Herschell,  (1738-1822),  born  at  Hanover, 
first  introduced  reflecting  telescopes.  Herschell,  who 
settled  in  England  himself  in  1774,  constructed  a  reflect- 
ing telescope,  with  which  he  observed  Saturn's  rings 
and  Jupiter's  satellites.  He  afterward  discovered  the 
planet  Uranus,  thus  further  extending  for  us  the  limits 
of  the  celestial  world. 

But  one  name  stands  out  above  all  others :  it  is  that 
of  Laplace  (1749-1827),  who  resumed  Newton's  calcu- 
lations. He  explained  the  movements  of  the  stars,  the 
inequalities  of  the  planets,  and  formulated,  with  regard 
to  Jupiter's  satellites,  two  theorems,  known  by  the  name 
of  the  Laws  of  Laplace.  The  penetrating  genius  of 
Newton  had  been  baffled  by  certain  variations,  which  to 
him  seemed  inexplicable.  He  thought  that  the  world's 


THE  "AGE  OF  REASON"  203 

system  at  certain  times  required  the  intervention  of  the 
Creator,  to  restore  its  equilibrium.  Laplace  solved  the 
problem  of  the  acceleration  of  the  mean  motion  of  the 
moon,  discovered  the  inequality  in  the  motions  of  Jupi- 
ter and  Saturn,  and  framed  the  true  theory  of  Jupiter's 
satellites.  His  chief  works  are  the  "Mecanique  Celeste" — 
a  book  almost  worthy  of  ranking  with  Newton's  "Princip- 
ia" — and  his  "Systeme  du  Monde,"  a  resume  of  all  mod- 
ern astronomy,  written  in  the  finest  scientific  language. 

The  physical  sciences,  which  had  been  backward 
until  then,  now  seemed,  by  their  activity,  anxious  to 
regain  lost  time.  Experiments  with  the  thermometer, 
commenced  in  the  Seventeenth  Century,  were  continued 
into  the  Eighteenth  by  Fahrenheit  (1686-1736),  then 
by  Reaumur,  and  by  the  Swede,  Celsius,  who  perfected 
the  Centigrade  thermometer  in  1742.  Toward  the  end 
of  the  century  the  brothers  Montgolfier  made  (1783) 
their  first  experiments  with  air  balloons  in  Annonay, 
before  the  States  of  the  Province  of  Vivarias.  Man 
essayed  to  take  possession  of  the  air;  but  although  the 
science  of  air  balloons  has  since  made  some  progress,  he 
has  not  yet  succeeded. 

Man  then  learned  to  discipline  the  forces  of  nature 
in  a  wonderful  way.  An  ironmonger  and  a  glazier 
from  Dartmouth,  Devonshire  (Newcomen  and  Cowley), 
taking  advantage  of  the  discoveries  made  in  the 
preceding  Century  with  regard  to  steam,  constructed 
engines  furnished  with  boilers,  in  which  the  steam 
was  formed,  and  with  them  succeeded  in  pumping 
mines.  But  although  this  first  attempt  was  of  the 
greatest  importance,  it  cannot  be  compared  to  the 
labors  of  James  Watt  (1736-1819).  This  poor  work- 
man, an  artisan  of  a  town  in  Scotland,  invented  some 
improvements  that  almost  formed  the  modern  steam 


204  MODERN  EUROPE 

engine.  Instead  of  condensing  the  steam  in  the  same 
cylinder  in  which  it  worked  the  piston,  he  conducted  it 
into  a  separate  receptacle,  where  it  returned  to  liquid. 
This  was  the  condenser.  He  also  invented  the  system 
by  which  steam  acts  upon  both  sides  of  the  piston,  and 
found  means  to  transmit  two  successive  movements  to 
the  beam  of  the  machine,  resulting  from  the  raising  and 
lowering  of  the  piston.  Finally,  by  the  use  of  the  crank, 
he  transformed  the  reciprocating  movement  of  the  pro- 
peller of  the  machine  into  a  rotary  movement. 

A  French  engineer,  Joseph  Cugnot,  constructed,  in 
1770,  some  steam  carriages,  which,  although  unservice- 
able, were  the  first  attempts  at  locomotives.  In  Amer- 
ica, Oliver  Evans,  the  inventor  of  the  high-pressure 
machine,  built,  in  1790,  some  steam  carriages  that  trav- 
eled on  the  usual  roads.  This  was  a  complete  revolu- 
tion, the  importance  of  which  was  little  suspected. 

In  the  Sixteenth  and  Seventeenth  Centuries  men 
first  suspected  the  existence  of  electricity.  Hauksbee, 
an  Englishman,  succeeded,  in  1709,  in  constructing  an 
electric  machine,  by  replacing  the  sulphur  machine  of 
Otto  de  Guericke  by  a  glass  globe  rubbed  by  the  hand. 
Stephen  Gray  and  Wheeler,  also  Englishmen,  continued 
(1729)  these  experiments  in  electricity,  and  discovered 
that  there  were  conducting  and  non-conducting  sub- 
stances. At  Leyden,  in  Holland,  Munschenbroek, 
while  electrifying  water  in  a  phial,  accidentally  placed 
one  hand  upon  the  metallic  conductor  which  led  the 
electricity  from  the  machine  into  the  water;  he  instantly 
felt  so  violent  a  shock  in  the  arms  and  chest  that  he 
thought  he  was  killed.  This  accident  led  to  the  inven- 
tion of  the  Leyden  jar  (1745). 

In  America,  Franklin,  at  first  printer  and  publisher, 
natural  philosopher,  statesman,  and  diplomatist,  a  uni- 


THE  "AGE  OF  REASON"  205 

versa!  genius,  by  his  daily  experiment  with  a  kite  which 
he  launched  into  the  air  near  Philadelphia,  during  a 
storm  (1752),  established  the  identity  of  electricity  and 
lightning.  The  principle  of  the  lightning  rod  was 
found.  Franklin  erected  the  first  at  Philadelphia  in 
1760,  but  time  was  still  required  before  this  protective 
invention,  enthusiastically  adopted  in  America,  was 
used  in  England  in  1762,  and  it  was  not  used  in  France 
before  1782.  Sir  W.  Snow  Harris  applied  it  to  ships  in 
1830. 

Galvani  (1737-1798)  a  professor  at  Bologna,  was  led 
by  experiments  upon  frogs,  to  affirm  the  existence  of  an 
electricity  which  he  believed  to  be  distinct  from  atmos- 
pheric electricity,  and  which  he  called  animal  electricity, 
but  which  is  now  called  dynamic  electricity  (1789). 
Volta  (1745-1827),  disputing  Galvani's  theories,  placed 
on  the  contrary,  the  source  of  electricity  in  metals,  while 
the  Boulognese  professor  placed  it  in  the  bodies  of  ani- 
mals. He  constructed  (1799)  with  pieces  of  copper  or 
silver  joined  to  pieces  of  zinc,  yet  separated  by  pieces  of 
cardboard  soaked  in  salt  water,  a  pile  which  accumu- 
lated electricity  at  each  extremity  or  pole,  at  the  one 
positive  electricity,  at  the  other  negative  electricity. 
This  pile  formed  a  current,  and  its  power  was  destined 
to  produce  marvels  that  daily  became  more  astonishing. 

Chemistry  really  appeared  in  the  Eighteenth  Cen- 
tury, with  Priestly,  Scheele,  and  Lavoisier.  The  Eng- 
lishman, Priestley  (1733-1804),  experimented  in  nearly 
every  science,  made  numerous  experiments  upon  the 
gases,  and  investigated  particularly  the  properties  of  car- 
bonic acid  gas,  oxygen,  azote,  oxide,  of  carbon,  and 
bicarburated  hydrogen.  Scheele  (1742-1786),  who  was 
born  in  Stralsund,  but  lived  in  Sweden,  made  new  dis- 
coveries about  oxygen  and  the  analysis  of  the  air,  dis- 


ao6  MODERN  EUROPE 

covered  chlorine,  arsenic  acid,  Prussian  blue,  prussic 
acid,  oxalic  acid,  etc.  In  France,  Lavoisier  (1743-1794) 
solved  the  composition  of  the  atmosphere,  decomposed 
and  recomposed  water.  In  1783  he  made  some  admir- 
able experiments  before  Louis  XVI,  and  several  sa- 
vants; he  really  founded  the  school  of  modern  chemistry. 
Berthollet,  Fourcroy,  Cavendish,  Lavoisier's  disciples, 
continued  his  labors;  Guyton  de  Morveau  of  Dijon, 
Berthollet  of  Annecy,  Fourcroy,  born  in  Paris,  by  their 
instruction,  aided  greatly  in  diffusing  a  taste  for  chem- 
istry. In  England,  Cavendish  distinguished  himself  by 
his  experiments  upon  hydrogen,  nitric  acid,  etc.  To 
these  names  must  be  added  the  Irishman,  Kirwan,  and 
the  German,  Goettling,  whose  labors  contributed  to  the 
genesis  of  the  science  destined  to  displace  alchemy. 

The  natural  sciences  were  defined,  enriched  by  care- 
ful observations,  and  at  last  reduced  to  accurate  classi- 
fication. Buffon  (1707-1788),  an  elegant  writer  as  well 
as  an  illustrious  student,  deserves  to  be  called  father  of 
natural  history,  and  by  his  clear,  interesting  style  has 
added  greatly  to  men's  knowledge  of  and  taste  for  that 
science.  Daubenton  studied  animals  anatomically  and 
was  the  first  to  reconstruct  fossil  animals.  Linnaeus 
(1707-1778),  of  Sweden,  formed  an  ingenious  botanical 
classification,  which  was  in  use  for  a  long  time. 

The  progress  of  natural  sciences  added  greatly  to  the 
advance  of  medicine,  which,  freed  in  the  preceding  Cen- 
tury from  the  yoke  of  routine,  made  fresh  steps  forward 
with  the  Frenchmen,  Bordeau  (1722-1776)  and  Barthez 
(1734-1806).  In  Paris,  the  Royal  Society  of  Medicine 
was  founded  in  1778.  In  Italy,  Vallisneri  (1661-1730) 
was  both  naturalist  and  doctor;  Spallanzani  (1729-1799) 
an  anatomist,  made  important  observations  upon  the  cir- 
culation of  the  blood,  the  digestion,  etc.  Morgagni 


THE  "AGE  OF  REASON"  207 

(1682-1771)  inaugurated  pathological  anatomy.  In 
England  Cheselden  (1688-1752),  a  surgeon,  attempted 
the  first  operation  upon  cataract,  and  restored  sight  to 
one  that  was  born  blind.  Lastly,  Jenner  (1749-1823) 
remarked  that  inoculation  with  cowpox  preserved  from 
smallpox,  that  formidable  scourge  which,  until  then,  no 
one  had  been  able  to  combat.  The  highest  ambition  began 
to  be  devoted  to  the  relief  of  suffering  humanity.  The 
Abbe  de  L'Eppe,  following  the  principles  taught  in  Spain 
by  the  Benedictine  Pedro  Ponce  (1520-1584)  and 
improved  by  Juan  P.  Bonnet  (1620),  enabled  the  deaf 
and  dumb  to  share  in  life's  duties  and  pleasures,  by  sub- 
stituting the  movements  of  the  hands  for  the  sounds  of 
the  voice,  and  by  creating  a  visible  alphabet  which  replaced 
the  ears  by  the  eyes.  On  the  other  hand,  for  those  who 
were  deprived  of  sight,  Valentine  Hauy,  brother  to  the 
mineralogist,  invented  an  alphabet  in  relief,  and  replaced 
the  lost  sense  by  the  sense  of  touch,  developed  to  marvelous 
accuracy  and  delicacy.  Lastly,  Doctor  Pinel,  protesting 
against  the  barbarous  methods  of  treating  the  insane,  who 
were,  at  that  time,  kept  in  chains,  treated  them  as  invalids, 
who  could  be  cured,  or  at  least  relieved,  by  kindness  and 
attentive  care.  These  are  three  great  conquests  of  civili- 
zation, victorious  over  the  infirmities  of  nature. 

Tragedy  was  attempted  by  the  genius  of  Voltaire,  a 
man  of  universal  genius,  poet,  philosopher,  and  historian, 
whose  name  alone  symbolizes  the  epoch.  Voltaire  filled 
the  Eighteenth  Century  with  his  life  and  works.  In  taste 
a  disciple  of  the  writers  of  the  preceding  Century,  an 
admirer  of  the  ancients,  whom  he  really  never  understood, 
he  trod  the  road  opened  by  Corneille  and  Racine;  while 
a  residence  beyond  the  Channel  had  introduced  him  to 
Shakespeare.  But  Voltaire  made  his  tragedies  a  medium 
of  political,  of  philosophical,  and  even  of  anti-Christian 


2o8  MODERN  EUROPE 

propaganda.  His  ruling  passion  was  a  hatred  of  fanati- 
cism and  superstition,  which  unhappily  led  him  to  assail 
with  virulent  wit  and  bitter  sarcasms  the  Christianity 
which,  rightly  interpreted  and  practiced,  has  nothing  to 
excite  the  enemity  of  keen  intellects  and  philanthropic 
hearts,  but  should  secure  their  support  and  esteem.  His 
writing  is  full  of  wit,  vivacity,  gayety,  ease,  and  grace  of 
style,  and  Voltaire  may  be  accounted  one  of  the  greatest 
men  of  letters  that  ever  lived.  Prose  was  his  proper 
weapon.  He  wielded  it  as  no  one  else  had  done  before 
him,  and  moulded  to  the  image  of  his  intellect.  He  is 
the  true  father  of  modern  French,  clear,  unambiguous, 
pleasant  without  pretention,  noble  without  heaviness, 
grave  without  pedantry,  lively  without  vulgarity.  He 
applied  this  animated  style  to  history,  and  gave  admirable 
models  of  narrative  in  "Charles  XII,"  and  the  "Century 
of  Louis  XIV."  History  in  his  hands  was  lacking  in  earn- 
estness, but  he  appreciated  it  as  an  art.  But  Voltaire  was 
philosopher  and  philanthropist  above  all — not  a  philoso- 
pher in  the  scientific,  nor  a  philanthropist  in  the  religious 
sense.  His  philosophy  consisted  in  subjecting  everything 
to  the  examination  of  reason,  to  argument,  to  a  search  for 
truth.  His  philanthropy  consisted  in  hatred  of  intoler- 
ance of  all  kinds;  he  thus  put  an  end  to  the  persecution 
of  Protestants  in  France,  though  he  had  no  sympathy  with 
their  doctrine.  He  chiefly  constituted  himself  the 
defender  of  the  generous  ideas  of  humanity,  of  tolerance 
and  justice,  and  his  influence,  like  his  popularity,  was 
immense,  increasing  with  his  age  and  the  diffusion  of  his 
ideas. 

The  other  political  writers  were  largely  responsible 
for  the  state  of  public  thought  that  led  to  the  Revolution. 
Perhaps  the  deepest  thinker  of  the  age  was  Montesquieu, 
who  passed  twenty  years  in  writing  a  single  book  (1712- 


THE  "AGE  OF  REASON"  209 

1778),  the  "Spirit  of  Laws,"  which  analyzed  the  different 
forms  of  government  and  the  various  legislations  which 
had  succeeded  and  combated  each  other  in  the  world. 
Montesquieu  admired  the  English  government  more  than 
any  other  and  proposed  to  adopt  it  as  a  model.  His  work 
dealt  a  severe  blow  to  the  theory  of  absolute  monarchy  in 
France. 

More  popular  than  Montesquieu  and  hence  more  effec- 
tive as  a  cause  of  the  changes  about  to  occur,  were  the 
writings  of  Jean  Jacques  Rousseiau  (1712-1778).  A 
vagabond  at  an  early  age  he  had  led  a  life  of  extraor- 
dinary adventure  and  change.  In  his  writings  Rousseau 
attacked  the  accepted  civilization  of  his  age.  He  praised 
the  life  of  "the  noble  savage,"  took  feeling  as  the  rule  of 
conduct  and  rejecting  the  claims  of  dull  duty,  bade  men 
and  women  follow  their. own  hearts'  promptings.  Yet 
his  own  fine  feeling  did  not  prevent  him  from  sending  all 
his  children  (five  in  succession,  born  of  an  ignorant  maid- 
servant) to  the  Foundling  Hospital,  to  be  reared  by  the 
charity  of  strangers.  His  sentimental  novel — the  "Nou- 
velle  Heloise" — shocked  sound  morality,  but  his  political 
treatise,the  famous"Contrat  Social,"has  been  credited  with 
a  powerful  influence  on  the  course  taken  by  the  French 
Revolution.  In  this  work  the  sovereignty  of  the  people 
is  asserted.  Men  are  bidden  to  draw  up  their  own  articles 
of  religion,  "not  as  dogmas,  but  as  sentiments  of  socia- 
bility," with  banishment  for  those  who  should  decline  to 
accept  them,  and  death  for  such  as,  after  acceptance,  should 
violate  them.  After  all  sorts  of  troubles,  conflicts  with 
the  authorities  at  Paris,  Geneva,  and  Berne,  visits  to  Prus- 
sia and  England,  ill-behavior  of  his  own,  and  ill-treatment 
by  false  friends,  this  strange  compound  of  philanthropy 
and  vice,  sentiment  and  spleen,  enthusiasm,  eccentricity, 

vanity,  and  perverseness,  died  of  apoplexy  near  Paris. 
Voi,.  2 — 14 


210  MODERN  EUROPE 

These  three  men  were  aided  in  the  work  by  others  who 
belonged  to  the  group  known  as  the  "Encyclopedistes." 
They  were  more  or  less  concerned  in  the  production  of 
the"French  Encyclopedie/'awork  which  appeared  bet  ween 
1751  and  1765,  intended  as  a  free  review  of  all  knowledge, 
produced  by  men  who  were  in  no  field  of  it  slaves  to  author- 
ity. It  was  projected  and  edited  by  Diderot  D'Alem- 
bert,  who  had  charge  of  its  mathematical  department, 
wrote  the  famous  Preliminary  Discourse  to  the  work. 
The  historical  importance  of  the  Encyclopedic  arises  from 
the  free  spirit  of  inquiry  and  criticism  that  marked  its 
general  tone  and  philosophy  in  religious  and  political  mat- 
ters. It  appeared  in  an  age  when  men's  minds  were  stir- 
ring with  new  thoughts,  and  every  existing  opinion  and 
institution  was  eagerly  brought  to  the  bar  of  judges  who 
cared  nothing  for  mere  assertion  and  authority.  The 
writers  gained  a  very  extensive  and  powerful  influence 
over  the  political  and  religious  sentiment  of  the  age,  and 
were  at  once  the  consequence  and  the  cause  of  a  new  epoch 
in  their  Nation's  life.  While  they  assailed  the  dogmas 
and  the  system  of  Christianity  "with  a  rancor  and  an 
unfairness  disgraceful  to  men  Who  called  themselves 
philosophers,"  yet  the  sort  of  Christianity  which  they 
saw  around  them  in  France  at  the  middle  of  the  Eighteenth 
Century  was  not,  in  general,  such  as  could  inspire  any  one 
with  respect.  This  it  was  which  lent  strength  to  the  blows 
of  men  who,  in  the  cause  of  justice  and  mercy,  came 
between  the  powerful  and  the  oppressed,  and,  in  their 
pamphlets  and  satirical  poems,  attacked  the  gross  abuses 
which  prevailed — "religious  persecution,  judicial  torture, 
arbitrary  imprisonment,  the  unnecessary  multiplication  of 
capital  punishments,  the  delay  and  chicanery  of  tribunals, 
the  exactions  of  farmers  of  the  revenue."  The  assailants 
of  the  faith  were  encountered  by  the  church,  not  with 


THE  "AGE  OF  REASON"  211 

effective  argument,  but  with  the  feeble  resources  of  a  petty 
persecution — burning  of  books,  pronouncing  of  censures 
— methods  that  could  irritate  but  not  destroy.  At  last 
unbelief  became  necessary  to  the  character  of  an  accom- 
plished and  intellectual  man,  and  the  new  doctrines  spread 
from  France  abroad,  welcomed  by  Frederick  the  Great  of 
Prussia,  by  Catharine  of  Russia,  and  by  Joseph  of  Aus- 
tria, and  carrying  heresy  into  Italy,  Portugal,  and  Spain. 
The  Encyclopedistes  thus  did  much  to  further  the  revolu- 
tionary spirit  which  was  to  be  carried  hereafter  by  armed 
hosts  into  nearly  every  quarter  of  Europe, 

But  a  new  science  was  now  rising,  destined  eventually 
to  overthrow  the  sentimental  and  unpractical  political 
philosophy  of  the  school  of  Rousseau  and  the  Encyclo- 
pedistes. This  wias  political  economy.  Toward  the  end 
of  Louis  XIV's  reign,  Vauban  and  Bois-Guillebert  had 
directed  their  attention  toward  the  financial  and  commer- 
cial organization  of  the  State.  Vauban  had  displeased  the 
King,  and  affected  public  opinion  by  his  book  on  the  "dime 
royale"  (the  royal  tithes).  Bois-Guillebert,  a  Royal 
Intendant,  had  protested  against  the  abuses  of  the  pro- 
tective system  and  the  tyranny  of  the  internal  taxation. 
But  the  real  founders  of  political  economy  belong  to  the 
Eighteenth  Century — Gournay  and  Smith.  Gournay's 
(1712-1759)  axiom  was  the  celebrated  motto  applied  to 
the  Manchester  school,  "Laisser  faire,  laisser  aller,"  that 
is  to  say :  everybody  has  a  right  to  make  what  he  likes,  and 
how  he  likes,  to  sell  every  kind  of  merchandise  at  the  price 
that  suits  him  best  to  any  purchaser  he  can  find.  The 
theory  of  the  Scotchman  Adam  Smith,  who  lived  for  some 
time  in  France,and  was  the  comrade  of  the  Encyclopedistes, 
was  more  general  and  more  just.  In  his  eyes  wealth  con- 
sisted in  labor.  He  demanded  liberty  for  labor.  A  visit 
to  a  pin  manufactory  taught  him  another  principle,  the 


2i2  MODERN  EUROPE 

division  of  labor.  He  was  also  the  first  to  establish  the 
law  of  supply  and  demand  upon  the  rise  and  fall  of  prices. 

Lesage  (1660-1747),  in  his  amusing  book  of  "Gil 
Bias,"  took  up  the  picaresque  or  realistic  style  "Gil 
Bias"  is  perhaps  the  best  description  of  the  life  of 
another  country  ever  written  by  a  foreigner.  Spaniards 
long  refused  to  believe  that  the  tale  had  not  been  stolen 
from  one  of  themselves.  Bernardin  de  Saint-Pierre 
(1737-1814)  has  also  survived  with  his  charming  idyll 
of  "Paul  and  Virginia,"  which  seemed  already  inspired 
by  the  truer  sentiments  of  the  succeeding  Century,  and 
acquired  an  immense  popularity,  not  in  France  alone, 
but  in  all  neighboring  countries.  Voltaire  aimed  chiefly 
at  satire  in  his  novels. 

The  impulse  given  to  literature  in  England  in  the 
Seventeenth  Century  continued.  The  appearance  of 
periodical  publications,  the  essayists,  the  press,  has  been 
one  of  the  results  of  the  Revolution  of  1688.  Daniel 
Defoe  (1663-1731),  the  first  of  the  political  essayists  or 
pamphleteers,  but  better  known  as  the  author  of  "Robin- 
son Crusoe,"  commenced  in  Newgate  Prison  the  publica- 
tion of  the  "Review,"  which  appeared  three  times  a 
week,  and  which  he  edited  without  assistance  during 
nine  years.  Richard  Steele(  1671-1 729)  then  published  the 
"Tatler"  (1709)  and  the  "Spectator"  (1711),  of  which 
Addison  was  the  chief  editor,  and  which  was  considered 
the  best  among  those  periodicals.  Joseph  Addison 
(1672-1719),  inferior  as  a  poet,  but  noticeable  as  a  critic, 
nourished  on  the  study  of  the  ancients,  was  above  all 
an  amiable,  pleasant  moralist,  striving  to  extend  the 
love  of  virtue.  His  polished  and  elegant  style  is,  how- 
ever, a  little  tedious. 

Daniel  Defoe  (1663-1731),  who  created  the  review, 
also  brought  the  novel  into  fashion,  by  fictions  to  which 


THE  "AGE  OF  REASON"  213 

he  gave  an  air  of  complete  veracity.  He  captivated  his 
readers  by  the  apparent  truthfulness  of  his  narrations, 
and  the  "Adventures  of  Robinson  Crusoe"  are  still 
popular  all  over  the  world.  Samuel  Richardson  (1689- 
1761),  in  his  novels  followed  rather  the  example  in  style, 
but  not  in  morals,  of  the  French  school.  His  novels 
are  written  for  women,  Fielding's  for  men.  Fielding  did 
not  shrink  from  painting  vice,  and  in  knowledge  of 
human  nature  and  sheer  strength  as  a  writer,  stands 
high  above  his  contemporaries.  Oliver  Goldsmith 
(1728-1774)  touched  all  hearts  by  the  natural  pathos  and 
grace  of  the  "Vicar  of  Wakefield."  As  a  poet,  and  also 
in  comedy,  he  was  above  any  of  his  contemporaries. 
Very  different  was  the  harsh,  bitter  genius  of  Swift 
(1667-1745),  the  most  powerful  prose  writer  of  his  day; 
his  "Gulliver's  Travels,"  like  his  other  works,  is  a  keen 
satire,  on  human  nature  and  human  life.  Lawrence 
Sterne  (1713-1768),  an  eccentric  humorist,  is  at  his  best 
in  "Tristram  Shandy."  In  his  "Sentimental  Journey" 
he  introduced  into  England  the  shallow  sentimentalism 
of  the  School  of  Bernardin  de  Saint- Pierre. 

Poetry  was  still  classical  with  Pope  (1688-1744), 
whose  personal  deformity  affected  his  whole  character. 
At  twenty  years  of  age  he  published  his  "Essay  upon 
Criticism";  then,  exercising  the  variety  of  his  wit  in 
satire,  he  sought  to  reanimate  philosophy  in  his  moral 
epistles,  above  all  in  the  "Essay  on  Man."  An  admirer 
and  translator  of  the  ancients,  particularly  of  Homer, 
Pope  attained  remarkable  elegance  in  sfyle;  his  works 
are  a  reflection  of  the  great  French  literary  Century. 
Pope  became  the  chief  of  a  school.  Amongst  his  dis- 
ciples Young  (1681-1765)  had,  curiously,  a  far  greater 
influence  and  vogue  abroad  than  in  England.  His 
"Night  Thoughts"  consist  of  sorrowful  meditations  on 


214  MODERN  EUROPE 

the  nothingness  of  life.  Gray  and  Collins  are  far  supe- 
rior as  classical  poets.  Thomson  had  more  passion,  and, 
in  the  "Seasons"  he,  first  of  the  poets,  sang  the  epic  of 
nature;  with  him  began  the  descriptive  school.  Samuel 
Johnson  (1709-1784)  is  also  named  among  the  poets, 
but  he  was  only  a  versifier.  He  succeeded  better  in 
criticism  and  wrote  in  a  more  sonorous  and  studied  prose 
than  anyone  before  him.  He  was  the  acknowledged 
master  of  his  day;  but  is  now  best  known  by  the  memoirs 
of  his  faithful  observer  and  admirer,  Boswell. 

English  poetry,  at  that  time  somewhat  cold  and  for- 
mal, found  life  and  truth  to  nature  in  the  pious  William 
Cowper  (1731-1800),  the  precursor  of  a  real  Renaissance. 
Enthusiastic  in  his  love  of  nature,  Cowper  painted  it 
without  affection,  obeying  only  his  inspiration  and  the 
intense  sensitiveness  of  his  own  personality.  Robert 
Burns  (1759-1796),  the  son  of  a  poor  Scotch  farmer, 
reached  without  effort  the  true  lyrical  note.  He  is  the 
greatest  poet  Scotland  has  produced.  He  is  the  first 
true  song  writer  in  Great  Britain  since  the  Elizabethan 
age.  George  Crabbe  (1755-1832)  prolonged  his  career 
into  the  Nineteenth  Century.  He  was  both  a  preacher 
and  a  realistic  poet.  Chatterton  (1752-1770),  "the  mar- 
velous boy,"  published  some  fictitious  English  poems 
of  the  Fifteenth  Century,  an  imitation  of  the  ancient  bal- 
lads, and  by  an  energy  and  literary  inspiration  unparal- 
leled in  one  so  young,  gave  promise  of  great  achieve- 
ments, the  accomplishment  of  which  was  prevented  by 
his  untimely  end.  Macpherson  (1738-1796)  counted 
upon  the  growing  taste  for  the  past  with  marvelous 
skill  and  audacity.  He  forged  a  long  poem,  "Fingal," 
purporting  to  be  a  prose  translation  from  the  work  of 
a  Celtic  bard,  Ossian,  and  by  his  skillful  imitation 
deceived  the  public,  which  believed  in  the  genuineness 


THE  "AGE  OF  REASON"  215 

of  the  work.  The  poem  must  be  closely  studied  before 
the  fraud  can  be  detected.  This  grandiose  work,  how- 
ever, had  a  great  success  and  exercised  considerable 
influence.  Weary  of  the  regular  beauties  of  Latin  and 
Greek,  the  English  and  French  were  seized  with  admira- 
tion for  the  songs  of  the  Celts.  It  led  finally  to  the 
regular  study  of  the  wild  warlike  poetry  of  the  Northern 
countries. 

English  philosophy,  more  serious  than  French  phil- 
osophy, followed  out  to  their  extreme  consequences  the 
doctrines  of  Locke.  Berkeley  (1684-1753)  denied  the 
reality  of  all  sensuous  experience.  David  Hume  (1711- 
1776)  denied  the  reality  of  all  mental  or  spiritual  expe- 
riences. His  doctrines  alarmed  one  of  his  fellow-coun- 
trymen, Thomas  Reid  (1710-1796),  who  recognized  the 
existence  of  certain  powers  in  the  mind  anterior  to  expe- 
rience, and  the  reaction  that  he  directed  against  the 
empiricism  of  Locke's  disciples  was  continued  by  his 
pupil,  Dugald  Stewart,  and  by  T.  Brown.* 

The  philosopher  Hume  was  also  a  historian,  endeav- 
oring to  imitate  Livy  by  the  clearness  of  his  narration, 
but  skeptical  and  prejudiced;  in  him,  the  philosopher 
injured  the  historian.  William  Robertson  (1721-1793), 
on  the  contrary,  a  heavier  and  more  conscientious 
writer,  formed  himself  on  the  Greek  historians.  The 
scholarly  Edward  Gibbon  (1737-1794),  greatest  of  writ- 
ers of  history,  was  the  author  of  "The  Rise  and  Fall  of 
the  Roman  Empire,"  a  masterpiece,  hardly  superseded 
by  modern  works,  but  impressed  with  the  prejudices 
of  the  Century,  and  hostile  to  Christianity.  We  must 
not  omit,  in  this  short  summary  of  the  literary  activity 
of  the  English,  some  reference  to  the  orators,  who  recall 
the  glory  of  ancient  Athens  and  Rome. 

*  See  Volume  "  Great  Philosophers." 


2i6  MODERN  EUROPE 

A  government  by  debate  such  as  the  English  Gov- 
ernment demands  of  necessity  political  eloquence.  The 
House  of  Commons,  and  afterward  the  House  of  Lords, 
reechoed  with  the  powerful  voice  of  William  Pitt  (1708- 
1778),  afterward  Lord  Chatham,  whose  speeches  are 
placed  among  the  classics.  The  Irishman  Burke  (1729- 
1797),  defender  of  the  American  colonies,  appeared  when 
Pitt  was  nearly  dying.  "It  was,"  said  Macaulay,  "a 
splendid  sunset,  and  a  splendid  dawn."  But  Burke  had 
too  much  fire,  too  much  impetuosity,  and  his  eloquence, 
more  philosophical  but  less  practical,  full  as  a  torrent, 
flowed  forth  in  floods  of  invective  metaphor,  and  dazzl- 
ing imagery  to  almost  empty  benches.  Fox  (1749- 
1806),  no  less  ardent,  no  less  impetuous,  had  far  greater 
power  in  political  debate.  Sheridan  (1751-1816) 
gained  renown  by  his  showy  eloquence,  and  the  second 
William  Pitt  (1759-1806),  who  inherited  his  father's 
oratorical  power  as  well  as  his  patriotism,  ruled  the 
House  of  Commons  by  his  ardent  speeches,  his  progres- 
sive arguments,  his  demonstrations,  which  impressed  his 
hearers  by  the  arrangement  of  the  whole  rather  than  by 
brilliancy  of  detail.  As  a  politician  he  was  far  in  advance 
of  his  time,  but  was  hampered  by  ill  health,  and  by  the 
prejudices  of  the  King  and  of  his  own  party. 

Civilization  in  the  Eighteenth  Century  had  made  no 
such  progress  that  Germany  was  able,  in  her  turn,  to 
boast  of  a  literature.  German  genius,  aroused  by 
Luther,  had  required  another  century  fully  before  it 
awakened.  The  language  which  the  great  Reformer 
had,  as  it  were,  molded  into  form,  by  his  translation  of 
the  Bible,  had  not  yet  been  adopted  for  literary  work. 
Leibnitz  had  thought  and  written  in  Latin.  In  the 
Eighteenth  Century  the  German  language  was  used  by 
two  critics  and  professors,  who  borrowed  the  system  of 


THE  "AGE  OF  REASON"  217 

reviews  from  the  English.  It  was  also  used  for  scholarly 
and  philological  works  by  Heyne(  1729-1812)011  "Virgil," 
and  by  August  Wolf  (1759-1824)  on  "Homer,"  for  his- 
tory by  Louis  de  Schloezer  (1737-1789),  and  the  Swiss 
Jean  de  Muller  (1752-1809),  who  wrote  a  fine  history  of 
his  native  land.  Lessing  (1729-1781),  born  in  Saxony, 
acquired  a  great  reputation  as  a  critic  and  author  by  his 
collections  of  "Letters  on  Contemporary  Literature," 
and  his  "Hamburgische  Dramaturgic,"  the  best  criticism 
upon  the  theater  which  had  appeared  in  the  Eighteenth 
Century.  It  was  he  who  unfolded  to  his  countrymen 
the  beauty,  vigor,  and  originality  of  Shakespeare,  and  he 
and  Winckelmann  brought  back  the  spirit  of  art  and 
poetry  to  the  genuine  and  simple  taste  of  the  Greeks. 
Lessing  was  thus  successful  in  the  great  aim  of  his  criti- 
cism— that  of  destroying  in  his  country  the  influence  of 
French  literature,  which  at  that  time  debased  the  Ger- 
man, and  robbed  it  of  all  original  power.  His  "Lao- 
coon"  was  a  calm,  philosophical  composition — a  discus- 
sion on  the  general  principles  of  art,  an  aesthetic  work. 
Lessing  opposed  the  ancients  to  the  moderns.  The 
scholar  Winckelmann  aided  still  further  the  diffusion  of 
a  taste  for  antiquity  by  works  on  art;  he  published  the 
"Letters  on  the  Discoveries  of  Herculaneum"  and  a 
"History  of  Art  Amongst  the  Ancients." 

German  poetry  made  its  first  attempt  with  De 
Haller  (1708-1777),  who  sang  of  the  Alps,  then  with 
Gessner  (1730-1787),  the  author  of  some  sentimental 
idyls,  and  of  a  narrative  poem,  "The  Death  of  Abel." 
It  brought  forth  also  Klopstark  (1724-1803),  who  cre- 
ated for  his  countrymen  a  new,  strong,  free,  and  genu- 
inely poetic  language.  He  is  one  of  the  greatest  lyrical 
writers,  and  has  been  called  the  Pindar  of  modern 
poetry.  His  chief  work  is  "The  Messiah."  His  ardent 


2i8  MODERN  EUROPE 

patriotism  appears  in  the  odes  called  forth  by  the  French 
Revolution.  The  German  tongue  and  music  is  also  the 
theme  of  his  musical  verse. 

Greatest  of  German  poets  was  John  Wolfgang 
Goethe,  the  most  illustrious  of  German  writers.  A  uni- 
versal genius,  poet  and  scholar,  critic  and  artist,  in  love 
equally  with  nature  and  the  ideal,  versed  in  science  and 
philosophy,  matter-of-fact  observer  and  dreamer,  lover 
of  the  past  and  of  the  present,  Goethe  was  already  in 
advance  of  the  Eighteenth  Century,  to  which  only  half 
of  his  life  belonged.  Following  by  turns  the  ancient 
Greek  poets,  and  the  morbid  sentimentality  of  the 
French,  his  excitable  nature  was  early  devoted  to  various 
forms  of  art  and  all  objects  of  intellectual  interest  in 
science,  religion,  literature,  law,  and  morals.  His  fa- 
mous romance,  the  "Sorrows  of  Werther,"  appeared  in 
1774,  his  plays  "Iphigenia"  in  1787,  "Egmont"  in  1788, 
and  "Tasso"  in  1790.  They  were  received  with  delight 
and  astonishment  by  the  German  people.  His  great 
work — the  dramatic  poem  "Dr.  Faust" — belongs,  in  its 
successive  forms,  to  Goethe's  whole  maturity  of  life.  It 
is  a  real  world  poem,  containing  the  author's  views  on 
the  problems  of  existence;  embodying  all  that  is  highest 
and  deepest,  most  touching  and  most  beautiful,  in  man's 
life  upon  earth.  In  1794  began  his  friendship  with 
Schiller,  which  continued  a  close  intimacy  till  the  latter^s 
death  in  1805.  The  result  was  beneficial  to  both; 
Goethe  felt  his  youth  renewed,  as  he  said,  and  became 
active  again  in  literature,  and  Schiller's  dramatic  genius 
produced  at  this  period  most  of  his  masterpieces  for  the 
stage  of  the  court  theater  at  Weimar,  of  which  Goethe 
was  director.  Goethe's  novel  "Wilhelm  Meister,"  was 
published  in  1794-96,  and  he  wrote  at  this  time  some  of 
his  finest  ballads.  "Hermann  and  Dorothea,"  a  narrative 


THE  "AGE  OF  REASON"  219 

poem  in  hexameters,  appeared  in  1797.  Napoleon  and 
Goethe  met,  with  expressions  of  reciprocal  admiration, 
during-  the  congress  at  Erfurt  in  1808.  In  1811  the 
great  German's  Autobiography  was  published,  and  at 
the  very  close  of  his  long  life,  in  1831,  comes  the  second 
part  of  the  Faust — much  inferior  to  the  first,  but  rich  in 
beauty  of  poetical  expression.  The  characteristic  of 
Goethe's  genius  is  its  wonderful  versatility,  ranging  over 
all  branches  of  poetry,  and  cultivating  with  success 
botany  and  other  scientific  subjects.  In  literature  he 
had  the  plastic  imagination  of  an  ancient  Greek,  the 
glowing  fancy  of  the  East,  the  melodic  ear  of  an  Italian, 
the  feeling  of  a  true  German. 

Goethe  is  the  ideal  of  the  man  of  letters,  bent  on  the 
improvement  of  his  intellectual  and  imaginative  powers 
to  the  utmost  extent  Unmoved  by  the  deeper  religious 
and  political  passions  of  his  day,  he  strove  to  live  in  a 
lofty  mental  sphere,  a  region  of  supreme  art  far  above 
all  these.  He  is  the  greatest  German  poet,  and  one  of 
the  few  of  all  time.  Schiller  was  Goethe's  friend.  Less 
devoted  to  art  but  not  less  poetical,  he  was  also  one  of 
the  principal  partisan's  and  leaders  of  the  literary  revolu- 
tion. He  excelled  in  the  drama  and  in  history,  which 
he  looked  upon  as  an  art.  His  great  play,  "Wallenstein," 
is  known  to  English  readers  by  Coleridge's  fine  transla- 
tion. "William  Tell"  is  his  best  tragedy;  "Maria  Stuart" 
and  the  "Maid  of  Orleans"  are  among  his  chief  dramatic 
works. 

Economic  interests  had  benefited  by  the  mental 
impulse  produced  by  literature  and  the  progress  of 
science.  Men  studied  commerce  as  well  as  politics,  and 
the  Eighteenth  Century  revealed  the  power  of  credit. 
Among  the  ancients  slaves  manufactured  all  the  articles 
required.  If  capital  were  wanted  it  could  only  be 


320  MODERN  EUROPE 

obtained  by  submitting  to  the  exactions  of  the  usurer. 
Among  moderns  the  liberty  of  the  workman  has  con- 
siderably developed  industry,  and  it  has  been  still  more 
aided  by  the  facility  of  credit.  In  the  Middle  Ages  this 
new  system  faintly  dawned  in  the  letters  of  exchange, 
whose  invention  is  traced  to  the  Jews.  Paper  already 
played  the  part  of  money.  The  discovery  of  America 
threw  an  immense  quantity  of  specie  into>  circulation, 
and  increased  commercial  relations.  Voyages  became 
more  frequent,  bills  of  exchange,  trading  bills,  and  notes 
to  order  became  general.  Banks  were  established  which 
advanced  loans  to  merchants  upon  securities  of  value. 
The  first  real  bank  was  that  of  Barcelona  in  1401.  The 
Bank  of  Stockholm  (1668)  was  the  first  to  issue  bank 
notes.  The  banks  of  Amsterdam  and  Hamburg  were 
in  the  Seventeenth  Century  remarkable  for  their  large 
business.  The  Bank  of  England  dates  from  1694.  It 
was  the  first  to  undertake  to  cash  the  bills  of  exchange 
before  they  came  due,  retaining  a  commission  propor- 
tioned to  the  time  that  was  yet  to  elapse — what  we  are 
now  so  familiar  with  as  discount.  But  if  all  these  banks 
aided  business,  they  did  not  yet  constitute  real  credit. 

The  extension  of  commerce  followed  hard  on  that  of 
geographical  discovery.  The  discoveries  of  the  Six- 
teenth Century  had  been  continued  in  the  Seventeenth, 
when  America  had  completely  revealed  her  extent  and 
internal  wealth.  The  Dutch  had  discovered  a  portion  of 
the  innumerable  islands  which  people  the  Pacific  Ocean, 
and  which  were  to  form  a  fifth  part  of  the  world, 
Oceania.  They  also  sighted  the  vast  territory  which 
they  called  New  Holland,  but  which  passed  to  the  Eng- 
lish and  was  called  Australia. 

It  was  chiefly  in  the  Eighteenth  Century  that  the 


THE  "AGE  OF  REASON"  221 

English  and  French  navigators  explored  Oceania. 
Dampier,  in  1688-90,  visited  the  northwest  coast  of 
Australia,  and  discovered  New  Britain.  Wallis,  Car- 
teret,  Bourgainville,  and  afterward  the  famous  Captain 
Cook,  revealed  the  existence  of  numerous  archipelagoes. 
Cook  sighted  New  Zealand,  discovered  New  Caledonia, 
the  Society  Islands,  the  Friendly  and  the  Sandwich 
Islands.  He  crossed  the  Antarctic  Polar  Circle  three 
times.  Afterward  his  course  was  followed  by  Lape- 
rouse,  d'Entrecasteaux,  Vancouver,  and  others.  The 
Dane  Behring  left  his  name  to  the  strait  which  bounds 
the  eastern  extremity  of  Asia.  The  entire  globe  was 
thus  traced  upon  maps  that  became  more  and  more 
exact,  and  man  learned  the  utmost  limits  of  his  domain. 
The  merchants  advanced  closely  behind  the  explor- 
ers, and  European  commerce  extended  speedily  and  con- 
tinuously. England  reaped  the  fruits  of  the  Act  of 
Navigation  and  of  a  policy  which  had  been  almost 
exclusively  directed  toward  the  conquest  of  the  seas. 
In  1703,  by  the  Methuen  treaty,  she  had  opened 
Portugal  for  herself,  and  inundated  the  country  with  her 
merchandise,  thus  killing  the  native  industry.  Spain 
even,  although  jealous  of  her  colonial  monopolies,  con- 
ceded to  England  the  monopoly  of  the  slave  trade,  and 
the  right  of  annually  sending  one  ship  to  Porto-Bello 
laden  with  merchandise,  a  ship  there  was  no  need  to 
replace,  for  her  cargo  was  continually  resupplied.  It 
was  a  floating  depot.  The  Austrian  War  of  Succes- 
sion, and  the  Seven  Years'  War  caused  the  decadence  of 
the  French  navy.  England  threw  herself  upon  the 
French  colonies,  which  were  badly  protected,  and  com- 
menced to  establish  that  immense  Empire  in  Hindustan 
which  Dupleix  had  dreamed  of  securing  for  France. 


223  MODERN  EUROPE 

She  seized  Canada  and  her  maritime  commerce,  which, 
in  1700,  amounted  to  330,000  tons,  rose  in  1770  to  760,- 
ooo  tons. 

The  English,  to  supply  their  trade,  developed  their 
industry  and  exported  Norwich  cloths,  Dublin  and 
Exeter  Linen,  cotton  stuffs  from  Manchester,  and  iron- 
mongery from  Leeds.  The  invention  of  mechanical 
looms  for  spinning  wool  (1767-1787),  and  the  applica- 
tion of  Watt's  steam  engine  (1769-1775),  gave  a  new 
impulse  to  industry,  and  produced  the  rapid  advance 
which  has  not  paused  since  that  time.  England,  who 
supplied  Europe  with  exotic  productions,  intended  also 
to  furnish  her  with  manufactured  goods.  She  endeav- 
ored to  become  the  sole  manufacturer  and  the  sole 
merchant.  England  failed  in  her  attempted  monopoly, 
and  her  own  colonies  were  the  first  to  turn  against  her. 

From  the  Fifteenth  Century  modern  States  retained 
the  old  principle  that  their  colonies,  daughters  of  the 
mother  country,  should  trade  only  with  her.  The 
colonies  were  regarded  merely  as  an  easy  market  from 
whence  to  procure  exotic  produce,  and  an  outlet  for  the 
industry  of  the  mother  country.  The  colonies  could 
receive  the  goods  they  required  from  her  alone,  and  cer- 
tain industries  were  even  prohibited  to  them.  If  the 
Indian  companies  prospered  it  was  in  spite  of  the  active 
opposition  of  the  English  manufacturers,  who  protested 
against  the  importation  of  the  beautiful  silken  and  cot- 
ton materials  sent  from  India.  The  colonies  and  dis- 
tant trade  were  considered  to  be  simply  a  source  of  raw 
materials,  of  productions  foreign  to  the  temperate  zone. 
Industrial  labor  must  remain  the  privilege  of  Europe. 
In  a  word,  the  consequence  was  to  drain,  not  to  enrich, 
the  colonies. 

Holland,  who  had  fallen  from  their  past  greatness, 


THE  "AGE  OF  REASON"  223 

chiefly  devoted  herself  to  profiting  by  the  advantages 
which  her  still  immense  trade  secured  to  her.  She  had 
fought  against  England  during  the  American  War,  for 
she  was  more  interested  than  any  of  the  other  powers 
in  maintaining  the  rights  of  neutrals  and  the  freedom  of 
the  seas.  This  war  was,  however,  of  no  advantage  to 
her,  and  England  had  a  fresh  opportunity  of  weakening 
a  navy  which  inconvenienced  her.  Holland,  however, 
remained  a  colonial  power  of  the  first  order. 

The  other  northern  powers,  Sweden  and  Denmark, 
had  also  renounced  ambition  and  retired  to  their  penin- 
sulas, with  the  exception  of  Denmark,  who  still  pos- 
sessed Norway.  They  almost  exclusively  devoted  them- 
selves to  their  internal  development,  to  industry  and 
commerce. 

In  contrast  to  the  ancient  civilization  which  had 
become  immovable  in  the  circle  of  the  Roman  Empire, 
modern  civilization  carried  with  it  a  germ  of  life,  which 
stimulated  it  to  expand  in  an  ever-increasing  circle. 
It  now  advanced  in  Europe  toward  the  North  and  East. 

Slowly  at  first,  under  the  German  Emperors,  the 
march  forward  had  conducted  Christianity  and  Latin 
civilization  from  the  banks  of  the  Elbe  to  the  shores  of 
the  Oder  and  the  marshes  of  the  Spree,  to  the  Vistula, 
then  to  the  Niemen;  whilst  Greek  civilization  and  Chris- 
tianity penetrated  through  the  valley  of  the  Dnieper  to 
the  center  of  the  vast  plains  of  Eastern  Europe.  The 
Slav  family,  which  had  for  a  long  time  bent  beneath  the 
weight  of  invasions,  raised  itself  and  entered  the  arena 
with  its  rare  physical  vigor,  its  open  intelligence,  its  sup- 
pleness, its  numbers  and  strength. 

Frederick  II  in  Germany,  as  intelligent  in  adminis- 
tration as  in  war,  devoted  himself  to  the  development  of 
agriculture,  industry,  and  commerce.  He  had  to  con- 


224  MODERN  EUROPE 

tend  against  a  barren  soil  and  a  total  ignorance  of  hus- 
bandry. In  Upper  Silesia  he  established  colonies  of  Ger- 
mans and  foreigners,  giving  to  each  colonist  his  house, 
stable,  barn,  garden,  and  twelve  to  twenty  acres  of  land, 
beside  some  cattle.  When  Prussia  took  her  share  of  Po- 
land, thousands  of  Polish  families  were  transported  into 
the  sparsely  inhabited  districts  of  Pomerania.  Berlin,  with 
a  population  of  only  6,000  inhabitants  in  the  Seventeenth 
Century,  owed,  during  the  reign  of  the  great  Elector, 
her  first  manufactures  to  the  French  refugees,  who  were 
received  there  after  the  Revocation  of  the  Edict  of 
Nantes.  Frederick  II  raised  the  city  from  the  ruins  to 
which  the  Seven  Years'  War  had  reduced  it,  and  ren- 
dered it  one  of  the  most  important  cities  in  Germany, 
even  while  he  retained  its  military  appearance  as  its 
dominant  characteristic.  This  great  opponent  of 
French  politics  appreciated  the  genius,  literature,  and  art 
of  France,  and  the  patron  of  Voltaire  peopled  Berlin  not 
only  with  barracks,  but  with  colleges  and  academies. 
From  that  time  a  taste  for  science  accompanied  a  taste 
for  war,  and  they  contributed  in  an  almost  equal  degree 
to  the  prodigious  success  of  Prussia. 

There  was  little  improvement  in  the  condition  of  the 
people.  Their  progress  had  gone  so  far  that  they  knew 
of  their  misery,  but  they  were  unable  to  relieve  it.  Jus- 
tice was  blind  except  to  the  giver  of  bribes.  Nobles 
were  privileged  to  commit  crime,  but  for  the  smallest 
offenses  the  wretched  masses  were  sentenced  to  capital 
punishment  by  laws  which  they  had  no  share  in  making. 
Commerce  was  fettered  by  ridiculous  laws.  The  poor 
were  kept  poor  and  the  rich  grew  richer.  The  masses 
groaned  and  suffered,  but  greedily  drank  in  the  doctrines 
preached  by  those  who  were  the  pets  of  the  monarchs 
at  whom  their  thrusts  were  aimed.  Perhaps  the  writ- 


THE  "AGE  OF  REASON"  225 

ers  themselves  did  not  dream  of  the  havoc  that  would 
follow  the  doctrines  they  preached.  The  writers  pre- 
pared the  way  for  the  men  of  blood.  The  people, 
weighed  down  by  oppressive  tyranny,  thirsting  for  free- 
dom, took  the  only  means  they  knew  of  securing  it. 
And  the  storm  broke.  It  broke  in  France  first,  not  only 
because  there  the  contrasts  were  perhaps  the  greatest, 
but  because  there  the  writings  of  the  political  theorists 
were  most  read. 

Voi,.  2—15 


The  French  Revolution  of  1789  is  by  far  the  most 
important  event  of  modern  history.  It  was  a  great 
political  earthquake  which  overthrew  in  France  the 
whole  fabric  of  public  and  social  order,  shook  and  trans- 
formed most  of  Europe,  caused  the  greatest  war,  or 
series  of  wars,  that  mankind  has  ever  waged,  and  pro- 
duced effects  that  the  world  has  not  yet  ceased  to  feel. 
The  scenes  displayed  and  the  deeds  done  during  this 
great  convulsion,  are  unequaled  in  recent  ages  for  thrill- 
ing interest,  including  all  that  can  stir  the  soul  of  man 
to  terror,  pity,  wrath,  wonder,  sympathy,  abhorrence, 
and  admiration.  The  basest  and  the  most  exalted  ele- 
ments of  human  nature  emerge  to  view  in  startling 
prominence  of  action  on  a  stage  which  drew  the  eyes 
of  all  the  world  to  what  was  passing;  some  of  the  great- 
est, and  many  of  the  vilest,  of  mankind  showed  forth, 
either  in  the  outbreak  itself,  or  in  the  European  struggle 
which  ensued,  the  highest  achievements  of  ability  and 
heroism,  and  the  worst  atrocities  of  depravity  and  crime. 
In  the  words  of  Thomas  Carlyle,  the  most  picturesque 
writer  who  has  dealt  with  this  great  subject  for  the  his- 
torian's utmost  skill,  we  have  in  the  French  Revolution 
"the  open  violent  rebellion,  and  victory,  of  disimpris- 
oned  anarchy  against  corrupt  worn-out  authority."  It 
was  an  outburst  of  destructive  wrath,  in  which  much  of 
an  old  world  disappeared,  burnt  up  to  ashes,  while  a 
new  order  of  creation,  here  swiftly,  and  there  slowly, 
was  evolved  out  of  a  hurly-burly  of  confusion,  despera- 
tion, and  death.  The  French  Revolution  proved,  once 

226 


THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  227 

for  all,  that  man's  political,  as  his  social,  life  must  be 
founded,  if  it  is  to  endure  in  happiness  and  strength,  on 
solidity  and  truth,  and  not  on  hollowness  and  shams, 
however  comely  and  fair-seeming  they  may  be. 

The  chief  cause  of  the  French  Revolution  may  be 
given  in  one  word,  misrule — misrule  obstinately  con- 
tinued in  defiance  of  solemn  warnings,  and  of  the  visible 
signs  of  an  approaching  retribution.  The  government 
of  France  had  long  been  lodged  solely  in  the  hands  of 
the  monarch,  the  nobles,  and  the  clergy;  and  these  men 
had  never  learnt,  or  did  not  chose  to  own,  the  elemen- 
tary truth  of  political  morality  for  those  who  rule  a  peo- 
ple— that  rulers  exist  only  for  a  Nation's  good.  This 
fundamental  axiom  of  all  government  had  never  for  a 
moment  been  recognized  at  the  court  of  Versailles,  and 
the  result  was — the  storming  of  the  Bastille,  the  slaugh- 
ter and  exile  of  the  nobles  and  the  clergy,  the  death  of 
the  King  and  Queen  of  France  upon  the  scaffold,  and 
the  carnival  of  blood  known  as  the  Reign  of  Terror. 

The  character  of  the  age  in  which  the  effects  of  mis- 
rule came  to  a  head  must  be  considered  to  understand  its 
results.  The  Eighteenth  Century  was  a  time  of  daring 
theory  on  matters  of  religion,  society,  and  government. 
The  freedom  of  thought  which  had  been  growing  in 
expansiveness  and  audacity  for  ages  past  had  led  men 
to  challenge  and  expect  to  find  a  principle  of  reason  in 
the  world  around  them.  Experimental  science  had  dis- 
covered law  in  the  world  of  nature;  the  discovery  of  the 
laws  of  nature  had  swept  away  superstition.  This  free- 
dom of  thought  was  then  vigorously  turned  to  the  spirit- 
ual side  of  things,  and  the  exposure  of  all  false  pretenses 
and  all  injustice  in  religion  and  politics  was  the  inevi- 
table issue.  Reverence  for  all  that  was  not  founded  on 
something  else  than  mere  assertion  or  antiquated  usage 


228  MODERN  EUROPE 

faded  away;  and  in  the  teachings  and  the  sarcasms  of 
philosophers,  economists,  and  wits,  a  Nation  learnt  that 
the  common  herd  of  men  had  rights  of  which  they  had 
too  long  been  robbed  by  a  small,  selfish,  privileged  class. 
For  nearly  a  Century  in  France  "political  servitude  and 
intellectual  freedom  had  existed  together,  ancient  abuses 
and  new  theories  had  flourished  in  equal  vigor  side  by 
side.  The  people,  having  no  constitutional  means  of 
checking  even  the  most  flagitious  misgovernment,  were 
indemnified  for  oppression  by  being  suffered  to  luxuriate 
in  anarchical  speculation,  and  to  deny  or  ridicule  every 
principle  on  which  the  institutions  of  the  State  reposed." 
It  was  the  existence  of  heavy  grievances  along  with  the 
enunciation  of  bold  doctrines  that  produced  the  French 
Revolution.  The  follies  and  vices  of  the  viziers  and  sul- 
tanas who  pillaged  and  disgraced  the  French  Nation  were 
to  the  writings  of  Voltaire  and  Rousseau  precisely  what 
gunpowder  is  to  fire,  and  the  result  of  contact  was  a  ter- 
rible and  desolating  outburst.  "Neither  cause  would 
have  sufficed  alone.  Tyranny  may  last  through  ages 
where  discussion  is  suppressed.  Discussion  may  safely 
be  left  free  by  rulers  who  act  on  popular  principles.  But 
combine  a  press  like  that  of  London  with  a  government 
like  that  of  St.  Petersburg,  and  the  inevitable  effect  will 
be  an  explosion  that  will  shake  the  world." 

One  lasting  effect  of  the  wild  and  wrathful  uprising 
of  a  Nation  against  the  abuses  of  feudalism  and  the 
"divine  right"  of  Kings  has  been  the  recognition 
accorded  to  the  rights  of  the  mass  of  the  people  in  nearly 
every  political  system  in  Europe.  The  workers  who 
create  the  wealth  of  nations  have  ever  since  been  steadily 
advancing  in  political  power,  and  have  attained  a  degree 
,of  education,  intelligence,  and  influence  which  have 


THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  229 

made  impossible  the  permanent   enthrallment  of  the 
many  by  the  few. 

The  political  and  social  state  of  France  before  the 
deluge  which  swept  away  existing  institutions  was  truly 
portentous.  The  church  of  the  country  had  become  a 
creature  of  the  court;  its  high  places  were  wholly 
usurped  by  the  aristocracy  that  glittered  at  Versailles. 
Retaining  their  lands  and  their  wealth,  their  feudal  state 
and  their  seigneurial  rights,  the  higher  clergy  neglected 
their  appointed  work,  and,  while  the  village  cures  alone 
in  some  measure  kept  faith  alive  in  the  land,  their  supe- 
riors had  become  a  frivolous  and  pampered  caste.  The 
nobles  of  France  had  never,  in  their  best  days,  had  liberal 
sympathies,  and  they  had  learned  to  acquiesce  in  regal 
tyranny,  provided  it  did  not  touch  themselves.  They 
had  at  last  degenerated  from  feudal  leaders  of  society 
and  wielders  of  local  influence  and  authority  into  a  mere 
set  of  courtiers,  the  complaisant  instruments  of  a  rigor- 
ous despotism,  and  regardless  of  the  world  outside  it. 
An  intense  feeling  of  dislike  was  developed  in  the  minds 
of  the  country  people  against  absentee  nobles  who  lived 
in  profligacy  and  extravagance,  utterly  neglectful  of 
local  duties,  and  heartlessly  indifferent  to  the  wants  of 
the  humbler  classes.  In  the  person  of  Louis  XV  the 
royalty  of  France  had  become  utterly  degraded;  and 
poor,  stupid,  awkward,  well-meaning  Louis  XVI  pro- 
voked little  but  contempt  from  all  beholders. 

The  system  of  taxation  was  grossly  unjust  and 
oppressive  to  the  body  of  the  people.  The  nobles  and 
clergy  paid  scarcely  any  taxes;  they  had  a  complete 
monopoly  of  almost  every  office  of  honor  and  wealth. 
In  every  province,  and  in  all  departments  of  the  State, 
in  every  palace  and  royal  domain,  an  army  of  triflers, 


230  MODERN  EUROPE 

holding  sinecures  created  for  their  benefit,  sucked  the 
life-blood  of  the  Nation,  while  the  peasant  and  the 
artisan  starved  in  hopeless  wretchedness.  The  state  of 
the  people,  indeed — of  the  millions  of  workers  for  daily 
bread — was  disgraceful  and  shocking.  The  taxes  took 
half  the  produce  of  the  peasant-proprietors'  land;  the 
poorest  were  often  driven  to  feed  on  boiled  nettles;  insuf- 
ficient and  unwholesome  food  caused  strange  and  ter- 
rible diseases  to  break  out;  death  from  cold  and  starva- 
tion was  common.  The  contrast  between  the  luxury 
of  the  chateau  and  the  want  of  the  cottage  was  fearful; 
and  amid  the  splendor  of  Versailles — a  round  of  unceas- 
ing etiquette,  extravagant  pomp,  glittering  idleness, 
sickly  sentiment  masking  intense  selfishness,  and  frivol- 
ity shining  over  foul  corruption — King  and  courtiers  let 
the  world  wag  on,  as  if  no  day  of  doom  could  ever  come. 

When  Louis  XIV  died  in  1715  he  left  to  his  infant 
successor  a  famished  and  miserable  people,  a  beaten  and 
humble  army,  provinces  turned  into  deserts  by  misgov- 
ernment  and  persecution,  factions  dividing  the  court,  a 
schism  raging  in  the  church,  an  immense  debt,  an  empty 
treasury.  The  highest  statesmanship  and  the  sternest 
devotion  to  a  ruler's  duty  could  alone  have  coped  with 
difficulties  like  these,  but  the  rulers  of  France  for  the 
next  two  generations  were  almost  all  destitute  alike  of 
high  ability  and  of  good  intentions.  Those  who 
examine  the  history  of  France  before  the  great  Revolu- 
tion will  cease  to  wonder  at  the  fact  and  at  the  violence 
of  the  outbreak,  and  will  be  amazed  only  at  the  pro- 
tracted endurance  of  an  oppressed  and  insulted  people. 

Louis  XV,  a  great-grandson  of  Louis  XIV,  reigned 
from  1715  to  1774.  During  his  minority  (1715-1723) 
the  Duke  of  Orleans,  an  able,  but  indolent  and  unprin- 
cipled man,  was  regent  of  the  Kingdom,  and  the  wicked 


THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  231 

Cardinal  Dubois  took  a  great  part  in  the  government. 
These  men  did  nothing  but  mischief  to  the  State  by  their 
reckless  expenditure.  Under  Cardinal  Fleury  (in  power 
from  1726  to  1743)  affairs  were  more  prosperous,  the 
Government  being  conducted  with  comparative  frugality 
and  moderation.  Then  recommenced  the  downward 
progress  of  the  monarchy.  Profligacy  in  the  court, 
extravagance  in  the  finances,  schism  in  the  church,  fac- 
tion in  the  Parliaments,  unjust  war  terminated  by  igno- 
minious peace — all  that  indicates  and  all  that  produces  the 
ruin  of  great  Empires,  make  up  the  history  of  that  miser- 
able period.  Abroad,  the  French  were  beaten  and  hum- 
bled everywhere,  by  land  and  by  sea,  on  the  Elbe  and  on 
the  Rhine,  in  Asia  and  in  America.  In  the  Seven  Years' 
War  (1756-1763),  especially,  disasters  came  thick  upon 
France.  In  November,  1757,  the  French  army  was 
utterly  defeated  by  Frederick  the  Great  at  Rossbach  (to 
tlhe  west  of  Leipsic) ;  between  1757  and  1760  the  East 
Indian  possessions  of  France,  and  the  great  Province  of 
Canada,  were  acquired  by  England.  At  home,  the  life  led 
by  the  King  excited  the  contempt  and  the  hatred  of  the 
people.  He  was  ruled  by  two  mistresses  in  succession, 
who  did  infinite  harm  to  the  country.  The  Marquise  de 
Pompadour  was  favorite  from  1745  till  her  death,  in  1764, 
and  the  Comtesse  Du  Barry,  a  woman  of  still  lower  origin 
and  viler  character,  succeeded  her,  and  held  sway  at  the 
licentious  court  till  the  death  of  Louis  XV,  in  1774.  Dur- 
ing the  reign,  the  expenses  of  war  abroad  and  vicious 
extravagance  at  home  had  increased  the  already  heavy 
burden  of  taxation  for  the  townspeople  and  peasantry.  In 
1771  the  last  vestige  of  constitutional  government  van- 
ished, in  the  suppression  of  the  Parliament  of  Paris,  which 
was  the  highest  court  of  law  in  the  land.  A  good  admin- 
istrator, the  Due  de  Choiseul,  was  in  power  from  1758 


232  MODERN  EUROPE 

till  1770,  and  did  much  to  improve  the  army  and  the  navy, 
but  he  fell  at  last  before  the  intrigues  of  Du  Barry,  and 
things  went  swiftly  on  toward  ruin.  Under  Louis  XV 
the  Duchy  of  Lorraine  was  annexed  to  France,  in  1766, 
and  the  Italian  island  of  Corsica  was  subdued  by  her  arms 
in  1769.  The  death  of  Louis  XV  left  to  his  successor  a 
hopeless  prospect — the  government  of  a  people  that  hated 
the  monarchy  and  the  aristocracy,  the  administration  of  a 
State  whose  treasury  was  empty  and  whose  credit  was 
gone,  the  control  of  a  whirlwind  whose  approach  was  even 
now  dimly  seen  and  faintly  heard  on  the  horizon. 

Louis  XVI,  grandson  of  Louis  XV,  reigned  from  1774 
to  1792.  He  was  a  kindly,  dull  sort  of  man,  whom  fate  had 
made  Sovereign  of  France,  and  nature  had  intended  for 
a  clockmaker  or  locksmith — in  which  trades  he  was  an 
expert  amateur.  Destitute  of  brains  to  think,  and  of 
energy  and  spirit  to  act,  in  such  a  situation  as  he  was 
rhiserably  forced  to  fill,  he  was  doomed  to  expiate  in  his 
own  person  the  gross  crimes  and  follies  of  his  predecessors 
on  the  throne.  His  wife,  Marie  Antoinette,  daughter  of 
Maria  Theresa,  Empress-Queen  of  Austria  and  Hungary, 
was  virtuous,  bold,  vivacious,  and  indiscreet,  and  all  her 
efforts  to  avert  evil  were  either  useless  or  hurtful  in  the 
end. 

The  chief  difficulty  was  that  of  the  finances.  Two 
men  of  ability  and  integrity,  Malesherbes  and  Turgot, 
were  first  in  power  as  ministers,  and  the  proposed  reforms 
of  the  latter  might  possibly,  if  fully  adopted,  have  averted 
the  coming  convulsion.  Turgot  was  a  true  patriot,  and 
when  he  proposed  to  abolish  privileges,  to  introduce  free 
trade(at  home)  ingrain,andto  tax  the  nobles  and  the  clergy 
like  the  other  ranks  of  society,  he  was  driven  from  power 
in  1776.  The  church  and  the  aristocracy  had  thus  rejected 
the  counsel  which  might  have  saved  them.  "They  would 


THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  233 

not  have  reform;  and  they  had  revolution.  They  would 
not  pay  a  small  contribution  in  place  of  the  odious  eorvees 
(the  obligation  of  the  people  in  a  certain  district  to  do 
certain  labor,  without  pay,  for  the  feudal  lord  or  for  the 
sovereign),  and  they  lived  to  see  their  castles  demolished 
and  their  lands  sold  to  strangers.  They  would  not  endure 
Turgot;  and  they  were  forced  to  endure  Robespierre." 
Necker,  a  Swiss  banker  of  Paris,  was  then  called  in  to 
manage  the  finances.  He  reformed  enough  to  irritate  the 
privileged  classes,  but  not  enough  to  stop  the  continual 
deficit,  and  was  dismissed  from  office  in  1781.  Down- 
ward ever  went  the  country  to  perdition ;  higher  ever  grew 
the  Nation's  debt,  and  wider  still  the  gap  between  expendi- 
ture and  income.  When  England's  American  colonies 
revolted,  the  rulers  of  France,  with  the  wildest  folly, 
plunged  into  the  war  against  England.  They  were  thus 
at  once  increasing  the  financial  difficulty,  and  encouraging 
and  spreading  the  principles  and  spirit  of  revolution.  The 
success  of  the  colonists,  largely  due  to  French  aid,  roused 
enthusiasm  in  the  democrats  of  France,  and  the  financial 
difficulties  produced  by  the  war  carried  to  the  height  the 
discontent  of  that  larger  body  of  people  who  cared  little 
about  theories,  and  much  about  taxes. 

Calonne  became  financial  minister  from  1783  to  1787, 
by  the  influence  of  the  Queen,  whose  intrigues  in  affairs 
of  State  on  the  side  of  the  privileged  orders  made  her 
greatly  hated  by  the  people.  Calonne  resorted  to  the  won- 
derful  expedient  of  a  great  expenditure,  in  order  to  raise 
the  public  credit,  combined  with  heavy  loans  to  meet  the 
wants  of  the  treasury.  When  this  resource  failed,  Calonne 
convoked  the  Notables  to  sanction  new  plans  resembling 
those  of  Turgot.  The  Assembly  of  the  Notables  was  a 
meeting  of  the  chief  nobles,  officials,  and  distinguished 
persons  of  every  rank  in  the  Kingdom.  They  sat,  to  the 


234  MODERN  EUROPE 

number  of  about  140,  from  February  to  May,  1787,  and 
when  Calonne  proposed  that  the  nobles  and  clergy  should 
yield  their  privileges  and  pay  a  land  tax,  he  was  dismissed 
from  office  and  banished  to  his  country-seat. 

After  other  helpless  efforts  had  been  made,  Necker  was 
recalled  to  power  in  August,  1788,  and  with  his  concur- 
rence it  was  decided  to  summon  a  States-General,  or 
National  Parliament — a  body  of  deliberators  which  had 
not  been  convoked  since  the  days  of  Richelieu,  in  1614, 
more  than  a  century  and  a  half  before.  The  elections  were 
held;  the  representatives  of  the  people  (the  Commons,  or 
Tiers  Etat — i.  e.,  the  Third  Estate,  the  clergy  and  the 
nobility  being  the  First  and  the  Second  Estates)  were 
chosen;  and  the  States-General,  to  the  number  of  nearly 
1,200,  assembled  at  Versailles  on  May  5,  1789.  Of  the 
clergy  there  were  nearly  300  members;  of  the  nobles,  about 
270;  of  the  people,  nearly  600.  This  meeting  of  the 
States-General  is  commonly  considered  the  beginning  of 
the  "French  Revolution." 

The  revolutionary  era,  in  its  wider  sense,  includes  a 
period  of  twenty-five  years,  from  1789-1815.  This  period 
may  be  well  divided  into  four  parts :  ( I )  from  the  open- 
ing of  the  States-General,  May  5,  1789,  till  the  abolition  of 
monarchy,  August  10,  1792,  and  the  death  of  Louis,  Janu- 
ary 21,  1793.  (2)  The  "Reign  of  Terror,"  till  the  dis- 
solution of  the  National  Convention,  October  26,  1795. 
(3)  The  Republic, under  the  Directory  and  Consulate,  from 
October  26,  1795,  till  Napoleon's  election  as  Emperor, 
May  1 8,  1804.  (4)  The  French  Empire  under  Napoleon 
I,  till  his  final  fall  in  July,  1815. 

Disputes  soon  arose  between  the  Tiers  Etat  and  the 
other  two  orders.  The  representatives  of  the  people, 
headed  by  a  determined,  able,  and  eloquent  man  of  the 
noble  class,  named  Mirabeau,  asserted  themselves  with 


THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  235 

vigor,  and  insisted  that  all  three  orders  should  sit  and  vote 
as  one  assembly,  in  which  case  it  was  clear  that  the  600 
popular  deputies  would  swamp  the  clergy  and  the  nobles. 
Matters  came  to  a  crisis  when,  on  June  22,  Mirabeau  sent 
a  direct  message  to  the  King  that  he  and  his  fellows  "are 
here  by  the  will  of  the  people,  and  no  one  shall  drive  us 
out  except  by  the  force  of  bayonets."  Before  this,  the 
deputies  had  assumed  the  title  of  the  National  Assembly, 
and  their  power  was  shown  when  the  clergy  and  the  nobles 
yielded,  and  agreed  to  sit  and  vote  conjointly.  This  body 
was  called  also  Constituent  Assembly,  because  the  deputies 
had  sworn — in  the  "Tennis-court  Oath"  of  June  2oth, 
which  they  took  in  the  tennis-court  of  the  palace  of  Ver- 
sailles, when  the  doors  of  the  hall  of  assembly  were  locked 
against  them — that  they  would  not  separate  till  they  had 
given  a  Constitution  to  France.  Louis  XVI  now  took  a 
fatal  step.  Placed  in  a  situation  where  safety  could  only 
be  had  in  instant  measures  of  reform,  and  in  gaining  the 
love  and  trust  of  the  people — at  a  time  when  starving  mobs 
were  besieging  the  bakers'  shops  in  Paris,  and,  in  the 
provinces,  the  peasantry  were  "living  on  meal-husks  and 
boiled  grass" — Louis  took  counsel  of  Marie  Antoinette 
and  the  reactionary  party  at  court.  Under  their  evil 
advice — when  the  royal  garrison  in  Paris  had  begun  to 
fraternize  with  the  populace — an  army  of  troops  was 
gathered  at  Versailles,  including  many  foreign  regiments 
(Hungarian  and  German)  and  the  Bridge  of  Sevres  was 
armed  with  cannon  pointed  toward  the  capital.  On  July 
I2th  the  ominous  news  was  whispered  in  Paris  that  Necker 
— the  people's  friend  and  possible  "savior  of  France,"  as 
he  had  been  styled — was  dismissed  from  office.  Terror, 
kindling  into  frenzy,  spread  fast  among  the  citizens.  A 
cry  of  "To  arms !"  was  followed  by  instant  action.  On 
July  14,  1789,  the  hated  fortress  prison,  the  Bastille,  was 


236  MODERN  EUROPE 

taken  by  the  insurgents,  and  armed  revolution  was  abroad 
beyond  hope  of  suppression. 

Events  now  came,  swift  and  terrible,  on  King  and 
cowering  nobles.  A  "National  Guard"  was  formed  by 
the  municipality  of  Paris,  and  the  command  was  given 
to  Lafayette,  a  member  of  the  National  Assembly,  a 
Marquis  of  France,  who  had  fought  victoriously  in 
America  for  the  revolted  colonists.  The  famous  "tri- 
color" of  the  French  Republic  had  its  origin  now,  when 
Lafayette,  for  the  colors  of  the  new  national  force, 
adopted  the  white,  emblem  of  the  French  monarchy, 
placed  between  blue  and  red,  the  colors  of  the  city  of 
Paris.  Necker  was  recalled  to  office,  too  late,  by  the 
panic-stricken  King.  The  people  rose  thoughout 
France;  the  tax-gatherers  were  hunted;  many  of  the 
chateaux  of  the  nobles  were  plundered  and  burnt;  the 
nobles,  with  their  families,  began  to  hurry  abroad,  in 
what  was  known  as  the  first  emigration — the  fugitives 
being  henceforward  called  the  Emigres — leaving  un- 
happy Louis  to  contend  with  raging  revolution.  Early 
in  October  a  furious  mob,  mainly  composed  of  women, 
rushed  from  Paris  to  Versailles,  and  brought  the  King 
and  Queen,  after  some  bloodshed  in  conflict  with  the 
guards,  as  virtual  prisoners  to  the  capital.  The  King's 
brother,  the  Comte  d'Artois,  fled  with  other  reactionists 
to  Germany,  and  began  the  intrigues  at  foreign  courts 
which,  leading  to  foreign  interference  with  the  Revolu- 
tion, aggravated  its  violence,  and  prepared  the  way  for 
the  great  war  which  ensued. 

In  a  kind  of  enthusiasm,  on  August  4th,  the  clergy 
and  nobles  in  the  Assembly  gave  up  for  ever  their  feudal 
rights  and  dues — tithes,  seigneurial  imposts,  gabelle  (or 
salt  tax),  game  preserving — all  privileges  and  immuni- 
ties whatsoever.  Too  late  again!  The  people  knew 


THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  237 

that  fear,  not  patriotism,  prompted  the  surrender,  and 
trusted  henceforth  to  their  own  right  arms,  and  to  the 
dread  which  those  uplifted  with  clutched  weapons,  should 
inspire.  On  December  2d,  the  domains  of  the  church 
were  confiscated  for  the  benefit  of  the  Nation.  On 
January  15,  1790,  a  redivision  of  the  territory  of  France 
was  made.  The  old  partition  into  provinces  was 
abolished,  and  the  soil  divided  into  eighty-three  depart- 
ments, nearly  equal  in  extent,  named  generally  from  the 
natural  features,  mountains  and  rivers,  which  mark  each 
district.  In  June  all  titles  of  nobility  were  abolished, 
and  the  members  proceeded  with  the  "making  of  a 
constitution,"  which  never  got  to  work,  because  revolu- 
tionary violence  at  home  and  attacks  on  France  from 
abroad  swept  on  the  Nation  to  other  issues  of  her  strug- 
gle to  be  free.  The  formal  close  of  the  labors  of  the 
National  Assembly  was  on  September  30,  1791,  when, 
after  having  redeemed  its  "Tennis-court  Oath"  of  June 
20,  1789,  it  transferred  its  functions  to  a  new  body,  the 
Legislative  Assembly  elected  under  the  "constitution" 
which  had  been  framed.  Neither  of  these  assemblies 
had,  or  could  have  had,  any  practical  experience  in 
affairs  before  meeting  to  deal  with  a  crisis  of  fearful 
importance  to  the  State,  for  it  had  been  enacted  that  no 
member  of  the  National  Assembly  should  sit  in  the 
Legislative  Assembly,  and  to  this  mischievous  regula- 
tion some  of  the  disasters  which  followed  are  due. 

Meanwhile,  "anarchic  souls  from  every  quarter  of 
the  world"  had  begun  flocking  to  Paris  on  the  fall  of 
the  Bastille.  A  fierce  and  licentious  press  was  ever 
goading  on  the  people  with  new  excitements,  and  revo- 
lutionary clubs  assembled  the  bolder  spirits,  organized 
the  armed  ruffianism  of  the  capital,  and  fanned  the  flame 
of  democratic  ardor.  Of  these  clubs,  by  far  the  most 


238  MODERN  EUROPE 

famous  was  that  of  the  Jacobins — a  name  which  became 
proverbial  for  holders  of  extreme  views  on  the  liberal 
side  in  matters  of  politics  and  religion.  The  Jacobin 
Club  was  so  called  because  its  meetings  at  Paris  took 
place  in  the  old  convent  of  the  Dominican  friars  or 
Jacobins  in  the  Rue  St.  Honore.  At  this  club  every 
political  question  was  debated  before  being  laid  before 
the  National  Assembly.  Among  the  principal  debaters, 
in  its  earlier  days,  were  Mirabeau  and  Lafayette;  but 
Danton,  Robespierre,  and  extreme  revolutionists  soon 
gave  the  club  its  distinctive  character,  and  the  ability 
and  unscrupulous  energy  of  its  members  made  it  the 
great  controlling  power  of  the  Revolution.  Over  1,200 
branch  societies  were  organized  throughout  France, 
and,  obeying  orders  from  the  headquarters  in  Paris,  car- 
ried democratic  violence,  intrigue,  and  espionage  to 
every  corner  of  the  country,  so  that  no  man  or  woman 
could  feel  safe  from  the  far-reaching  arms  of  the  desper- 
ate democrats  who,  until  July,  1794,  wielded  the  powers 
of  this  formidable  association,  devoted  to  the  spread  of 
"Liberty,  Equality,  and  Fraternity."  Mirabeau  was  a 
man  of  great  talents  and  strong  passions,  and  master  of 
a  fiery  eloquence — dazzling,  epigrammatic,  overwhelm- 
ing— which  gave  him  a  vast  personal  influence  over 
stormy  and  divided  assemblies.  All  common  minds 
quailed  before  his  haughty  and  vehement  temper,  his 
imperious,  self-confident  manner,  and  his  fiercely  pas- 
sionate tone.  He,  if  anyone,  acting  as  mediator  be- 
tween King  and  people,  might  have  controlled  the  grow- 
ing anarchy  and  disorganization,  and  guided  the  Revolu- 
tion to  moderate  and  beneficent  results.  His  death  on 
April  2,  1791,  took  away  the  last  chance  of  such  an  influ- 
ence as  this  being  exerted  for  the  good  of  France. 

In  December,  1790,  the  King  had  already  begun  to 


THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  239 

correspond  secretly  with  foreign  powers;  and  a  conven- 
tion had  been  made  with  Austria  and  Prussia  for  the 
advance  of  their  troops  to  the  frontiers  with  a  view  to 
the  occupation  of  French  territory.  On  the  death  of 
Mirabeau,  Louis  still  hoped  to  be  able  to  control  the 
Revolution  with  aid  from  outside,  and  determined,  as  a 
first  step,  to  make  his  escape  from  what  was  really 
imprisonment  in  his  capital.  On  June  20,  1791,  the 
King,  Queen,  two  children,  and  the  King's  sister,  elud- 
ing Parisian  vigilance,  started  northeastward  for  the 
frontier,  to  join  the  army  there  assembled.  The  "Flight 
to  Varennes"  ended  at  the  town  of  that  name,  west  of 
Verdun;  the  fugitives  were  there  caught  by  the  watch- 
ful and  angry  local  patriots,  and  sent  back  in  ignominy 
to  Paris.  The  royal  family  were  henceforward  closely 
observed  in  all  their  movements.  Louis'  own  impru- 
dence, and  foreign  interference,  had  given  a  great  impulse 
to  the  democratic  cause.  In  August,  1791,  the  Govern- 
ments of  Austria  and  Prussia  prepared  for  actual  inter- 
position in  the  affairs  of  the  French  Nation.  The 
"Convention  of  Pilnitz,"  concluded  at  a  country  house 
of  that  name  near  Dresden,  between  the  Emperor  of 
Austria  (Leopold  II),  the  King  of  Prussia  (Frederick 
William  II),  and  some  minor  German  Princes,  had  an 
important  effect  in  irritating  the  French  people.  It 
declared  the  intention  of  "interfering  by  effectual 
methods"  on  behalf  of  the  French  King;  and  thus,  as  the 
National  (or  Constituent)  Assembly  was  on  the  point  of 
concluding  its  labors  and  giving  a  constitution  to  the 
distracted  country,  democratic  fury  was  made  to  blaze 
up  higher  than  ever. 

The  new  Constitution  was  sworn  to  by  the  King  orv 
September  14,  1791,  and  contained  provisions  for  a  free 
biennial  Parliament,  universal  suffrage  for  tax  payers  of 


24o  MODERN  EUROPE 

a  certain  small  amount,  liberty  of  worship,  freedom  of 
the  press,  abolition  of  the  laws  of  primogeniture  and 
entail,  equal  subdivision  of  property  among  children, 
abolition  of  titles,  and  other  democratic  measures.  The 
civil  reforms  thereby  made  were  afterward  incorporated 
in  the  famous  Code  Napoleon,  and  survived  the  political 
changes  of  the  revolution.  Under  more  favorable  cir- 
cumstances this  new  arrangement  might  have  been  got 
to  work,  and  coming  calamities  might  have  been 
averted.  The  action  of  foreign  powers  ruined  all.  The 
Legislative  Assembly  sat  from  October  i,  1791,  till 
September  21,  1792.  It  was  more  republican  in  charac- 
ter than  its  predecessor,  but  the  members  had  less  ability 
and  were  destitute  of  parliamentary  experience.  Public 
opinion  at  once  compelled  them  to  make  a  decisive 
course  against  foreign  intermeddling.  In  reply  to  the 
League  of  Pilnitz,  severe  measures  were  passed  against 
the  emigres  and  the  nonjuring  priests,  who  had  refused 
to  take  the  oath  of  obedience  to  the  Constitution,  and  on 
April  20,  1792,  war  was  declared  against  Austria.  Louis 
was  all  this  time  keeping  up  a  treasonable  correspond- 
ence with  the  allies,  and  he  refused  to  sanction  the 
decrees  of  the  Assembly. 

The  people  were  growing  ever  more  violent  and 
desperate  under  the  influence  of  the  revolutionary  clubs 
and  journalists;  and  on  June  20  the  Tuileries  Palace  was 
invaded  by  them,  and  the  King  forced  to  put  on  the  red 
cap  (bonnet  rouge),  the  symbol  of  the  advanced  repub- 
lican agitators.  On  July  24,  Prussia  declared  war 
against  France;  and  the  Duke  of  Brunswick,  command- 
ing the  allied  Prussian  and  Austrian  forces,  issued  his 
famous  Manifesto,  threatening  France  "with  military 
execution"  if  King  Louis  were  personally  insulted. 
This  proclamation  filled  France  and  Paris  with  fury,  and 


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THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  241 

the  crisis  came  in  August.  On  that  terrible  day  of 
revolutionary  renown,  the  Tenth  of  August,  1792,  the 
"Sections"  (armed  revolutionary  bands,  organized  and 
held  ready  by  the  Jacobin  Club)  of  Paris  rose.  The 
Tuileries  Palace  was  stormed;  the  gallant  Swiss  Guard 
was  cut  to  pieces;  the  King  sought  refuge,  with  the 
Queen  and  children,  in  the  hall  of  the  Assembly.  The 
King  was  then  suspended  from  his  powers,  and  he  and 
his  family  were  taken  as  close  prisoners  to  the  Temple 
prison,  whence  he  and  the  Queen  never  emerged  except 
to  die.  The  Legislative  Assembly  then  came  to  an 
end,  and  its  functions  were  transferred  to  a  new  National 
Convention,  or  Parliament,  with  absolute  powers,  to 
meet  the  fact  of  a  foreign  war.  There  were  749  mem- 
bers, nearly  all  Republicans. 

The  Convention  met  on  September  21,  1792.  Roy- 
alty in  France  was  at  once  formally  abolished,  and  it  was 
resolved  to  prosecute  the  war  vigorously  against  Austria 
and  Prussia.  The  new  revolutionary  chamber  con- 
tained two  great  parties.  These  were  the  Girondists 
(called  also  Girondins,  and  Brissotins,  from  one  of  their 
leaders),  so  named  because  their  leaders  were  the  depu- 
ties from  the  Gironde,  a  new  department  in  the  south- 
west of  France,  whose  chief  town  is  Bordeaux;  and  the 
Jacobins,  called  also  the  Montagnards,  or  the  Mountain, 
because  its  members  occupied  in  the  Assembly  hall  a 
range  of  elevated  seats.  The  Girondists  were  moderate 
Republicans,  and  included  many  men  of  ability  and  elo- 
quence, the  chief  being  Brissot,  Gensonne,  Vergniaud, 
Guadet,  Petion,  Roland,  Barbaroux,  Condorcet,  Isnard, 
Ducos,  Valaze,  and  Buzot.  Vergniaud,  especially,  was 
able  in  parliamentary  eloquence;  Condorcet  was  an 
eminent  mathematician  and  philosopher.  The  Jacobins 
or  Mountain  were  extreme  Democrats,  and  included 

•   Vol..  2  —  16 


*42  MODERN  EUROPE 

some  sincere  and  public-spirited  men,  such  as  Carnot. 
But  the  party  was  largely  composed  of  violent  and 
fanatical  revolutionists,  and,  apart  from  them,  of  self- 
seeking  wretches,  whose  deeds  became  the  wonder  and 
the  execration  of  the  whole  civilized  world.  Among  the 
former  were  Marat,  Robespierre,  Danton,  Saint  Just, 
Camille  Desmoulins,  Fouche,  Tallien,  and  Couthon; 
among  the  latter,  Collot,  Billaud,  Hebert,  Fouquier  Tin- 
ville,  Carrier,  Lebon,  and  that  prodigy  of  all  wickedness, 
Barere.  The  war  was  now  of  pressing  importance  for 
the  safety,  the  very  existence,  of  the  new  French  Repub- 
lic. 

The  Austrian  and  Prussian  armies,  under  the  Duke 
of  Brunswick,  along  with  the  bands  of  the  French 
emigres  (fugitive  nobles  and  their  partisans)  under  the 
Prince  de  Conde,  had  invaded  France  in  great  force  by 
her  northeastern  frontier,  and  a  small  army  of  national 
volunteers,  under  General  Dumouriez,  had  been  sent  to 
encounter  them.  On  August  23  the  enemy  had  cap- 
tured Longwy,  and  they  were  preparing  to  attack  Ver- 
dun. Great  agitation  existed  in  Paris,  and  terror  of  the 
enemy  without,  and  real  or  supposed  royalist  plottings 
within,  caused  the  perpetration  of  a  great  crime  by  the 
mob  of  Paris.  Many  hundreds  of  royalists,  including 
numerous  priests,  were  in  the  prisons  of  the  capital,  and, 
in  a  frenzy  of  rage  and  panic,  these  unhappy  persons 
were  murdered  in  a  four-days'  massacre,  September 
2-6,  1792. 

A  turning  point  in  the  history  of  the  Revolution  of 
France,  and  of  Europe,  came  in  the  "cannonade  of 
Valmy,"  a  village  among  the  hills  a  few  miles  from  St. 
Menehould,  in  the  northeast  of  France.  It  was  a  con- 
test between  the  New  World  and  the  Old — the  Republic 
and  royalty — the  rising  Democracy  and  the  ancient 


THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  243 

feudalisms — and  victory  rested  with  the  new  element 
which  had  risen  in  Europe  and  was  threatening  to  trans- 
form its  political  and  social  condition.  At  Valmy  was 
decided  the  warlike  character  of  the  French  Democracy; 
the  raw  Republican  troops  gained  confidence  and  cour- 
age; the  nucleus  was  created  of  the  great  military  force 
which  carried  Napoleon  to  the  height  of  power  and  fame. 
The  vigorous  Republicanism  of  modern  France  had  its 
future  assured  to  it  on  September  20,  1792.  Verdun 
had  been  taken  by  the  Prussians  on  September 
2,  and,  as  his  only  means  of  preventing  the  allies  from 
marching  on  Paris,  Dumouriez,  the  commander  of  the 
Republican  levies,  threw  himself  into  the  then  thickly- 
wooded  and  marshy  and  hilly  district  called  Argonne, 
extending  many  miles  southwest  from  Sedan,  and  from 
ten  to  twelve  miles  in  breadth.  The  passes  of  this  diffi- 
cult region  were  seized  by  the  French  and  fortified,  but 
the  Austrians  turned  the  position,  and  after  a  retreat, 
Dumouriez  was  brought  to  bay  at  Valmy  by  the  Prus- 
sians under  the  Duke  of  Brunswick.  Hitherto,  the 
French  Republicans  had  been  always  defeated,  and  had 
often  fled  in  panic  before  allied  troops.  The  French 
force  now  engaged  was  commanded  by  the  elder  Keller- 
man,  father  of  Napoleon's  great  cavalry  officer,  and  the 
late  King  of  the  French,  Louis  Philippe  (then  known  as 
the  Due  de  Chartres),  led  the  right  wing  of  the  Repub- 
licans. Both  friends  and  foes  expected  the  French  regi- 
ments to  disperse  under  the  fire  of  the  Prussian  guns,  but 
it  was  not  so.  They  kept  their  ground  firmly;  the 
French  artillery  replied  with  spirit  and  effect;  and,  after 
the  repulse  of  a  French  attack,  the  advancing  Prussian 
columns  shrank  from  a  close  encounter  with  the  deter- 
mined-looking, cheering  French  battalions,  and  re- 
treated. Led  on  again  by  the  King  of  Prussia  in  person, 


244  MODERN  EUROPE 

they  were  repelled  by  the  French  artillery  and  the  firm 
attitude  of  the  infantry,  and  the  battle  of  Valmy  was 
won.  The  allied  forces  wasted  away  under  sickness, 
and  but  few  recrossed  the  frontier.  The  great  German 
poet  Goethe,  who  was  present  as  a  spectator,  said  to  his 
friends  that  evening,  "From  this  place,  and  from  this 
day  forth,  commences  a  new  era  in  the  world's  history; 
and  you  can  all  say  that  you  were  present  at  its  birth." 

Dumouriez,  with  his  victorious  Republicans,  pursued 
the  retreating  Austrians,  and,  invading  the  Austrian 
Netherlands,  now  Belgium,  gained  the  battle  of  Jem- 
appes,  west  of  Mons,  on  November  6,  1792;  within  a 
month  the  country  was  overrun  and  conquered.  The 
fate  of  Louis  XVI  had  been  already  decided  in  the  minds 
of  the  Jacobins.  The  King  was  brought  to  trial,  sen- 
tenced to  death  as  an  enemy  of  France,  and  executed  on 
January  21,  1793. 

On  February  i,  France  declared  war  against  Eng- 
land and  Holland,  and  the  French  troops  invaded  Hol- 
land, but  were  soon  driven  out  by  the  help  of  English 
forces.  Dumouriez  then  turned  against  the  Revolution, 
fled  to  the  allied  army,  and  took  refuge  at  last  in  Eng- 
land, where  he  died  in  1823.  In  the  contests  of  the 
Convention,  the  Girondists  had  with  them  a  majority  of 
the  deputies  and  of  the  French  Nation  at  large,  and  the 
Jacobins — the  Mountain — besides  their  own  determina- 
tion, daring,  and  energy,  had  the  mob  of  Paris,  the 
municipal  government,  and  the  Democratic  clubs.  On 
January  21,  the  day  of  the  King's  execution,  the  formi- 
dable body  called  the  Committee  of  'Public  Safety  was 
instituted  as  the  chief  administrative  power  at  Paris,  and 
on  March  10,  under  the  influence  of  Danton,  one  of  the 
leading  Jacobins,  the  Revolutionary  Tribunal  was 
appointed  to  try  offenses  against  the  State.  Its  real 


THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  245 

object  was  to  assail  with  deadly  effect  the  Girondists  and 
all  moderate  Republicans.  The  struggle  between  the 
Girondists  and  the  Jacobins  became  violent  in  the 
debates,  and  the  extreme  party,  defeated  in  the  Conven- 
tion, armed  the  "Sections"  of  Paris,  arrested  about  thirty 
leading  Girondists  on  June  2,  and  thus  put  an  end  to 
the  policy  of  the  only  real  friends  of  liberty  in  France. 
Some  of  the  Girondists  managed  to  escape  from  Paris, 
but  nearly  all  died  either — as  Vergniaud,  Gensonne, 
Brissot,  and  Madame  Roland  did — by  the  guillotine,  in 
Paris  or  at  Bordeaux,  or  by  self-inflicted  death  with 
poison  or  the  steel. 

The  horrible  period  called  "The  Reign  of  Terror" 
had  begun.  The  Jacobins  had  prevailed.  This  was 
their  hour,  and  the  power  of  darkness.  The  Convention 
was  subjugated.  The  sovereignty  passed  to  the  Com- 
mittee of  Public  Safety.  Six  persons  held  the  chief 
power  in  the  small  Cabinet  which  now  domineered  over 
France — Robespierre,  Saint  Just,  Couthon,  Collot,  Bil- 
laud,  and  Barere.  Marat,  one  of  the  most  bloodthirsty 
of  the  Jacobins,  fell  at  Paris  by  the  dagger  of  Charlotte 
Corday,  the  "angel  of  assassination,"  on  July  13. 

The  majority  of  the  southern  towns  of  France  de- 
clared against  the  Convention;  in  all  other  parts  of  the 
country  there  were  numerous  supporters  of  the  Giron- 
dist shade  of  Republicanism;  and  in  the  west,  especially, 
there  was  a  powerful  Royalist  party.  The  Civil  War  in 
La  Vendee  was  due  to  the  efforts  of  the  last.  Vendee, 
one  of  the  modern  departments  of  France,  lies  on  the 
west  coast,  between  the  Loire  and  the  Charente,  and 
includes  a  hilly  and  wooded  district  called  the  Bocage, 
very  difficult  for  military  operations.  The  inhabitants 
of  this  district  are  still  remarkable  for  their  attachment 
to  old  usages,  and  to  the  nobility  and  clergy.  Under 


246  MODERN  EUROPE 

their  gallant  leaders  La  Rochejaquelein,  Cathelineau, 
D'Elbee,  Charette,  Stofflet,  and  Lescure,  the  Vendeans 
carried  on  from  1793  to  1796  a  war  in  the  Royalist  cause, 
which  gave  much  trouble  to  the  Republic.  In  the  north 
of  France  an  English  army  under  the  Duke  of  York 
invaded  the  country  along  with  German  forces,  defeated 
the  Republican  troops,  and  took  Valenciennes,  July, 
1793.  Lyons  revolted  against  the  Convention,  Toulon 
was  taken  by  the  English,  and  held  by  French  Royalists, 
and  the  whole  country  was  in  commotion.  The  Repub- 
lican Government  made  gigantic  efforts  to  meet  the 
crisis.  An  army  of  300,000  men  had  been  raised  before 
this,  but  now  a  levy  of  over  a  million  of  men  was  ordered, 
and  the  able  Carnot  organized  fourteen  armies  of  Repub- 
licans. The  revolt  in  La  Vendee  was  vigorously  met, 
the  insurgent  forces  were  routed  in  December,  1793, 
and  in  1795  and  1796  other  risings  in  the  west  were  sup- 
pressed by  General  Hoche,  the  ablest  and  purest  in  char- 
acter of  all  the  Revolutionists.  In  the  north,  General 
Jourdan  (afterward  one  of  Napoleon's  marshals)  drove 
the  Austrians  back  over  the  Sambre  (October,  1793), 
and  in  June,  1794,  gained  the  great  battle  of  Fleurus, 
northeast  of  Charleroi.  Lyons  was  attacked  by  the 
Revolutionary  forces,  and  taken,  after  a  siege  entailing 
frightful  suffering,  in  October,  1793.  The  Duke  of 
York  was  repulsed  from  Dunkirk  with  the  English  army, 
and,  after  some  successes  over  the  Republicans  in  north- 
east France  in  1794,  the  English  were  driven  from  Hol- 
land in  1795.  The  conquest  of  that  country  was 
effected  by  the  forces  of  the  Convention,  under  General 
Pichegru,  and  the  Batavian  Republic  was  established. 
Jourdan  drove  the  Austrians  beyond  the  Rhine;  Prussia 
made  peace,  and  in  April,  1795,  acknowledged  the 
French  Republic.  France  was  saved  (in  spite  of  the 


THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  247 

crimes  committed  at  home,  which  aroused  the  horror  of 
all  Europe)  by  the  valor,  energy,  and  patriotism  of  the 
French  people,  enjoying  a  new  freedom,  and  determined 
to  be  masters  of  their  own  soil.  In  giving  this  result  of 
the  Revolutionary  war  against  the  European  coalition, 
we  have  traveled  away  from  the  proceedings  taken 
against  internal  real  and  suspected  foes  of  the  Conven- 
tion. 

The  siege  of  Toulon  by  the  forces  of  the  Revolution 
introduces  us  to  the  greatest  man,  in  intellectual  power 
and  wonderful  achievement,  of  modern  times.  It  was 
the  skill  of  a  young  officer  of  artillery,  named  Napoleon 
Bonaparte,  that  enabled  the  Republicans  to  capture 
Toulon  in  December,  1793.  This  marvelous  man  was 
born  at  Ajaccio,  in  Corsica,  on  August  15,  1769,  the 
son  of  a  barrister;  he  was  educated  at  the  military  school 
of  Brienne  (a  small  town  in  the  department  of  Aube, 
southeast  from  Paris),  and,  at  the  Revolution,  became 
a  Republican  of  a  moderate  type,  and  was  employed  by 
the  Convention.  His  first  success  in  life  was  at  Toulon. 
His  career  is  dealt  with  in  the  volume,  "Famous  Warriors." 

After  the  downfall  of  the  Girondists,  the  victorious 
"Mountain"  adopted,  in  home  affairs,  the  severe  sum- 
mary measures  of  vengeance  and  intimidation,  which 
have  made  this  period  a  byword  in  the  history  of  man- 
kind. The  extreme  party  was  supported,  in  various 
parts  of  France,  by  over  forty  thousand  Jacobin  clubs 
and  municipalities.  The  armed  ruffians  of  the  "Sec- 
tions" of  Paris  were  paid  a  regular  sum  for  attending 
meetings,  and  were  held  always  ready  to  overawe 
opposition  with  their  pikes.  On  September  17,  1793, 
the  frightful  "Law  of  the  Suspected"  was  passed,  which 
was  really  a  proscription  of  whole  classes  of  persons, 
and  included  within  its  destructive  sweep  any  one  whom 


248  MODERN  EUROPE 

the  emissaries  of  power  chose  to  suspect.  The  prisons 
were  rilled  with  victims  sent  thither  by  the  Revolutionary 
Tribunal,  and  beheading  by  the  guillotine  daily  cleared 
the  way  for  new  occupants  of  the  cells.  On  October  16, 
1793,  Queen  Marie  Antoinette  was  executed,  and  her 
murder  on  the  scaffold  was  followed  by  that  of  twenty- 
two  of  the  Girondists,  as  mentioned  above,  of  the  Duke 
of  Orleans,  surnamed  Philippe  Egalite,  as  having 
accepted  the  Revolution,  and  voted  for  the  death  of  the 
King,  and  of  Madame  Roland.  The  most  childish 
absurdities  accompanied  the  most  revolting  excesses  in 
this  unexampled  saturnalia  of  ferocity  and  folly.  It  is 
impossible  here  to  give  the  details  at  any  length.  They 
must  be  sought  in  the  picturesque  pages  of  such  works 
as  Carlyle's  "French  Revolution"  and  Dickens'  "Tale  of 
Two  Cities."  Macaulay  writes  of  the  time  as  "the  days 
when  the  most  barbarous  of  all  codes  was  administered 
by  the  most  barbarous  of  all  tribunals;  when  no  man 
could  greet  his  neighbors,  or  say  his  prayers,  or  dress 
his  hair,  without  danger  of  committing  a  capital  crime; 
when  spies  lurked  in  every  corner;  when  the  guillotine 
was  long  and  hard  at  work  every  morning;  when  the  jails 
were  filled  as  close  as  the  hold  of  a  slave  ship;  when  the 
gutters  ran  foaming  with  blood  into  the  Seine;  when  it 
was  death  to  be  great-niece  of  a  captain  of  the  Royal 
Guards,  or  half-brother  of  a  doctor  of  the  Sorbonne." 
The  old  religious  worship  was  swept  away;  a  "Goddess  of 
Reason,"  in  the  person  of  a  woman  of  the  vilest  charac- 
ter, was  enthroned  at  the  Cathedral  of  Notre  Dame  in 
Paris;  the  churches  were  plundered  and  defiled;  the 
madness  of  atheism  and  cruelty  was  everywhere 
rampant. 

Against  the  moderate  Republicans  and  the  suspected 
Royalists  and  reactionaries  in  the  provinces  the  Com- 


249 

mittee  of  Public  Safety  sent  forth  its  agents  from  Paris, 
armed  with  full  powers  to  slay  at  discretion.     Nantes, 
Lyons,    Toulon,    Arras,    and    other   towns    were   thus 
handed  over  to  the  cruelties  of  Carrier,  Couthon,  Lebon, 
and  other  tyrants.      While  the  daily  wagon-loads   of 
victims  were  carried  to  their  doom  through  the  streets 
of  Paris,  the  proconsuls  whom  the  sovereign  committee 
had  sent  forth  to  the  departments  reveled  in  an  extrava- 
gance of  cruelty  unknown  even  in  the  capital.      The 
knife  of  the  deadly  machine  rose  and  fell  too  slow  for 
their  work  of  slaughter.     Long  rows  of  captives  were 
mowed  down  with  grapeshot.     Holes  were  made  in  the 
bottom  of  crowded  barges.     Carrier,  at  Nantes,  earned 
an  immortality  of  infamy  by  his  conduct.     It  was  he  who 
invented  the  noyades,  or  drownings  in  barges,  and  the 
"republican  marriages,"  in  which  man  and  woman,  or 
youth  and  girl,  were  tied  hand  and  foot  together,  and 
flung  into  the  river  to  drown.   "All  down  the  Loire,  from 
Saumur  to  the  sea,  great  flocks  of  crows  and  kites  feasted 
on  naked  corpses,  twined  together  in  hideous  embraces. 
No  mercy  was  shown  to  sex  or  age.     The  number  of 
young  lads  and  of  girls  of  seventeen  who  were  mur- 
dered by  that  execrable  government  is  to  be  reckoned 
by  hundreds.     Babies  torn  from  the  breast  were  tossed 
from  pike  to  pike  along  the  Jacobin  ranks.     One  cham- 
pion of  liberty  had  his  pockets  well  stuffed  with  ears. 
Another  swaggered  about  with  the  finger  of  a  little 
child  in  his  hat."     The  amount  of  murder  done  in  the 
Reign  of  Terror  may  be  judged  by  the  facts  that,  at 
Nantes,  15,000  persons  perished  in  a  month;  at  Toulon 
14,000  died  by  the  guillotine,  shooting,  or  drowning;  at 
Paris,  from  June  10  to  July  17,  1794,  when  the  "Terror" 
there  was  at  its  worst,  nearly  1,300  persons  were  guillo- 
tined after  so-called  trial  by  the  Revolutionary  Tribunal, 


250  MODERN  EUROPE 

where  Fouquier  Tinville  and  the  infamous  Hebert  acted 
as  chief  prosecutors  for  the  committee. 

The  head  of  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety  was 
Robespierre,  whose  ferocious  fanaticism  aimed  at  the 
extermination  of  all  opponents  and  possible  or  suspected 
dissentients.  Before  him  the  party  of  the  Anarchists, 
headed  by  Hebert,  Anacharsis  Clootz,  Momoro,  and 
others,  fell  and  were  guillotined  in  March,  1794;  the  bold 
Danton  and  his  friend  Camille  Desmoulins,  one  of  the 
most  zealous  and  able  Republicans,  who  pleaded  for 
mercy  and  denounced  the  cruelty  of  Robespierre,  were 
executed  on  April  5.  A  feeling  of  desperation  was 
engendered  in  the  minds  of  men  in  Paris  by  incessant 
slaughter  and  ever-present  danger.  "Human  nature, 
hunted  and  worried  to  the  utmost,  turned  furiously  to 
bay.  Fouquier  Tinville  was  afraid  to  walk  the  streets; 
a  pistol  was  snapped  at  Collot  D'Herbois;  a  young  girl, 
animated  apparently  by  the  spirit  of  Charlotte  Corday, 
attempted  to  obtain  an  interview  with  Robespierre. 
Suspicions  arose;  she  was  searched,  and  two  knives  were 
found  about  her.  She  was  questioned,  and  spoke  of  the 
Jacobin  domination  with  resolute  scorn  and  aversion." 

The  men  of  comparative  moderation  found  bold 
leaders  at  last  against  Robespierre  and  the  extreme  fac- 
tion. A  schism  had  arisen  in  the  despotic  Committee 
of  Safety.  Robespierre,  Saint  Just,  and  Couthon  were 
against  Collot,  Billaud,  and  Barere.  The  leaders  of  the 
attack  against  Robespierre  in  the  Convention  were  Tal-  ' 
ien,  Billaud,  and  Fouche.  On  July  28,  1794,  the  Reign 
of  Terror  virtually  came  to  an  end  in  tire  execution  of 
Robespierre,  Couthon,  and  Saint  Just.  This  was  fol- 
lowed by  the  fall  and  banishment  to  distant  prisons  of 
Collot,  Billaud,  and  Barere,  purging  the  Republic  of  its 
worst  wickedness.  The  infamous  Committee  of  P.ublic 


THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  251 

Safety  was  at  an  end;  the  Revolutionary  Tribunal  was 
no  more;  the  prisoners  came  forth  by  hundreds  from  the 
dungeons,  to  life  and  not  to  death;  the  Jacobin  Club 
was  suppressed  November,  1794;  humanity  took  the 
place  of  death  and  terror;  ''that  happiest  and  most  genial 
of  revolutions"  was  accomplished.  Early  in  1795 
attempts  were  made  to  excite  further  trouble,  both  by 
the  Royalists  and  by  the  extreme  Republicans,  but  they 
were  suppressed;  the  armies  of  the  Republic,  as  we  have 
seen,  were  successful  against  foreign  foes;  Carrier  and 
Fouquier  Tinville,  to  the  joy  of  all  good  men  and 
women,  were  guillotined;  happier  days  for  France  had 
come  at  last. 

In  1795  the  Convention  gave  the  Republic  a  new 
Constitution.  A  chamber  or  council  of  five  hundred 
proposed  laws;  a  Senate,  called  the  Chamber  of  Ancients 
(or  Council  of  Elders)  approved  or  rejected  them;  an 
executive  of  five  members,  the  famous  Directory,  admin- 
istered affairs.  The  chief  members  of  the  Directory 
were  Carnot  and  Barras.  The  revolutionary  "Sections" 
of  Paris,  combined  with  the  Royalists,  made  a  last 
attempt  to  hinder  the  march  of  the  Republic.  On 
October  5,  1795,  the  insurrection  was  decisively  crushed, 
with  his  "whiff  of  grapeshot,"  by  Bonaparte,  the  artillery 
officer  wisely  set  to  the  work  by  Barras.  The  cannon, 
skillfully  placed  and  boldly  handled,  blew  the  French 
Revolution,  in  its  narrower  sense,  away. 


THE    NAPOLEONIC    WARS 

One  man  filled  the  eyes  of  all  Europe  during  the 
closing  days  of  the  Eighteenth  and  the  beginning  of 
the  Nineteenth  Centuries.  Napoleon's  star  began  to 
rise,  shone  brilliantly  and  faded.  During  his  struggle 
the  occasion  furnished  opportunity  to  two  other  great 
men,  Wellington  and  Nelson,  to  distinguish  themselves. 
The  careers  of  the  three  men  are  told  in  the  articles  bear- 
ing their  names  in  the  volume,  "Famous  Warriors."  The 
plan  of  this  "History  of  the  World"  is  such  that  many 
details  of  the  Napoleonic  wars  there  given  are  omitted 
here  to  prevent  repetition.  But  the  period  in  which 
these  three  men  lived  was  one  of  the  most  important  in 
history  and  far-reaching  in  its  effects.  So  here  will  be 
given  an  outline  of  the  wars  which  resulted  from  the 
vaulting  ambition  of  this  would-be  conqueror  of  the 
world,  who  so  nearly  achieved  his  ambition. 

When  the  Government  called  the  Directory  was 
established  in  France  (1795),  the  French  Republic  was 
still  at  war  with  Austria,  and  in  1796  (a  week  after  his 
marriage  with  the  graceful  and  amiable  widow,  Jose- 
phine Beauharnais),  Bonaparte  went  to  assume  the  com- 
mand of  the  army  of  Italy  against  the  Sardinian  and 
Austrian  forces.  His  brilliant  strategy  and  rapid  move- 
ments gave  him  wonderful  success,  and  soon  placed  him 
before  the  world  as  the  greatest  General  of  the  age.  In 
battle  after  battle  (April,  1796)  he  routed  the  Sardinians, 
and  forced  them  to  sue  for  peace.  In  May  he  defeated 
the  Austrians  at  Lodi,  took  Milan,  where  he  seized  the 
chief  works  of  art  and  sent  them  to  Paris,  and  frightened 

252 


THE  NAPOLEONIC  WARS  253 

the  Pope,  and  the  governments  of  Naples,  Modena,  and 
Parma  into  making  terms.  He  then  turned  upon  the 
Austrians,  under  General  Wurmser,  beat  them  at  Castig- 
lione  in  August,  and  drove  them  into  Mantua.  In 
November,  1796,  he  defeated  the  Austrians  under 
Alvinzy,  at  Arcola,  and  again,  January,  1797,  at  Rivoli. 
Wurmser,  pressed  by  famine,  then  surrendered  Mantua. 
After  an  invasion  of  the  Pope's  dominions,  and  forcing 
him  to  surrender  Avignon  and  much  Italian  territory  to 
France,  Bonaparte  crossed  the  Alps  northward  into  the 
Tyrol,  meeting  the  Austrian  Archduke  Charles,  one  of 
the  best  commanders  of  the  age,  who  was  preparing  to 
invade  Italy.  Bonaparte  defeated  the  Archduke  in 
several  battles,  and,  rapidly  marching  on  Vienna,  forced 
Austria  to  make  terms.  By  the  Treaty  of  Campo 
Formio  (October,  1797)  the  Austrian  Netherlands  (now 
Belgium)  and  Lombardy  were  ceded  to  France,  and 
Venetia  was  given  to  Austria — an  arrangement  which 
put  an  end  to  the  Republic  of  Venice  after  her  many 
centuries  of  freedom.  Savoy  and  Nice  had  been  already 
given  up  by  Sardinia,  and  the  conquering  Republic  had 
become  a  terror  to  the  monarchies  of  Europe.  The 
young  General  was  received  with  boundless  enthusiasm 
in  Paris  on  his  return  in  December,  1797. 

The  career  of  Bonaparte  in  the  East  was  a  failure. 
Aiming  at  the  English  Empire  in  India,  the  Directory, 
in  May,  1798,  sent  a  powerful  expedition,  under  Bona- 
parte's command,  to  conquer  Egypt.  The  Mamelukes 
were  defeated  near  Cairo,  in  the  battle  of  the  Pyramids, 
and  the  country  was  occupied.  Nelson's  victory  at  the 
Nile  (August,  1798),  described  in  the  article  on  Nel- 
son in  the  volume,  "Famous  Warriors,"  shut  up  the  French 
army  in  their  conquest,  and  in  February,  1799,  Napoleon 
marched  to  meet  the  Turkish  forces  in  Syria.  He  gained 


254  MODERN  EUROPE 

some  victories,  but  failed  to  take  St.  Jean  d'Acre,  after 
a  siege  of  sixty  days,  and  his  designs  of  Eastern  conquest 
were  thus  frustrated.  Bad  news  from  France  brought 
him  back  to  Paris  in  October,  1799.  In  Italy,  in  1798 
(after  the  establishment  of  a  Cisalpine  Republic  in  the 
north,  and  a  Ligurian  Republic  at  Genoa,  in  1797),  Gen- 
erals Berthier  and  Massena  had  taken  and  plundered 
Rome,  stripping  the  palaces,  churches,  and  convents  of 
every  work  of  art,  and  every  object  of  value.  Pope  Pius 
VI  was  taken  prisoner  to  France,  where  he  soon  after- 
ward died,  and  a  Roman  Republic  was  set  up.  The 
second  coalition  against  France  was  now  formed  by 
England,  Russia,  Austria,  Turkey,  and  the  King  of 
Naples  and  Sicily.  Early  in  1799  the  Kingdom  of 
Naples  was  conquered  by  the  French,  and  a  Republic 
(the  Parthenopaean,  from  the  ancient  Parthenope,  a 
town  on  the  site  of  Naples)  was  established.  Then  came 
a  change  of  fortune  for  the  French.  In  Germany,  their 
forces  under  Jourdan  were  driven  beyond  the  Rhine  by 
the  Archduke  Charles.  In  Italy,  the  same  great  com- 
mander, with  the  Russians  under  Suwarof,  whom  we 
have  seen  as  the  captor  of  Ismail  from  Turkey  in 
1790),  defeated  the  French  troops  under  Moreau,  Mas- 
sena, Jourdan,  Macdonald,  and  Joubert,  in  several  im- 
portant battles,  and  recovered  nearly  all  the  country  for 
a  time.  In  France,  the  Directory,  after  four  years' 
administration,  had  broken  down.  Corruption  and  dis- 
order were  rife,  a  change  of  Directors  had  taken  place, 
and  all  was  in  confusion  when  Napoleon  returned  from 
Egypt  in  October,  1799. 

In  November,  1799,  a  month  after  Bonaparte's 
return,  the  French  Republic  virtually  came  to  an 
end,  and  Napoleon  was  henceforward  master  of 
France.  At  the  head  of  the  troops  he  abolished  the 


THE  NAPOLEONIC  WARS  255 

Directory,  and  became  absolute  ruler  as  First  Consul. 
with  two  colleagues  of  nominal  power.  There  was  a 
Council  of  State  (named  by  the  Consuls)  to  prepare 
laws;  a  Legislative  Body  (not  allowed  to  debate)  to 
approve  or  reject  them;  and  a  prefect  in  every  territorial 
department,  with  full  executive  powers,  responsible 
directly,  and  solely,  to  the  Minister  of  the  Interior.  This 
last  centralized  form  of  government  has  survived  all 
revolutions,  and  exists  at  the  present  moment  in  France. 
Napoleon's  objects  in  France  were  the  establishment  of 
order  and  the  reform  of  civil  affairs.  He  was  at  once  a 
revolutionist  and  a  reactionist — an  adventurer  who  had 
become  a  virtual  sovereign — and  he  was  prepared  to 
receive  as  friends  all,  either  Jacobins  or  Royalists,  who 
would  support  his  Government,  while  he  was  equally 
determined  and  able  to  put  down  all  who  should  oppose 
him.  He  took  measures  to  recruit  the  Nation's 
finances,  repealed  the  violent  laws  of  the  Revolution, 
reopened  the  churches  for  worship,  set  up  a  censorship 
of  the  press,  and  a  complete  system  of  political  spies,  and 
was  thus  armed  at  all  points  against  royalist  or  revolu- 
tionary efforts. 

When  matters  were  arranged  at  home,  Napoleon  again 
took  the  field.  Crossing  the  Great  St.  Bernard,  in  May, 
1800,  he  took  Melas,  the  Austrian  General,  by  surprise  and 
entered  Milan.  On  June  14  his  brilliant  victory  of  Marengo 
gave  Piedmont  again  to  France.  In  December  of  that  year, 
Moreau,  in  Germany,  gained  his  great  battle  of  Hohen- 
linden  over  the  Austrian  Archduke  John.  The  French 
armies  introduced  and  continued  the  system  of  plunder 
by  which  war  was  made  to  support  itself  in  a  hostile  or 
neutral  scene  of  action.  Everything  wanted  by  the  sol- 
diers of  France  was  taken  at  the  bayonet's  point  from  the 
wretched  inhabitants,  and  though  this  method  answered 


256  MODERN  EUROPE 

well  for  a  time,  it  caused  the  French  to  be  justly  regarded 
as  little  better  than  brigands,  and  in  the  end  contributed 
to  the  downfall  of  Napoleon's  power.  At  first,  indeed,  the 
plan  adopted  was  a  sheer  necessity,  because  the  Republican 
Government  was  destitute  of  funds,  but  the  French  sol- 
diers, thus  taught  to  plunder,  acquired  habits  which  had 
fatal  results  in  the  general  enmity  aroused  throughout 
Europe  by  this  ruthless  way  of  proceeding.  In  February, 
1 80 1,  the  Peace  of  Luneville  with  Austria  made  the  Rhine 
the  boundary  between  France  and  Germany,  and  treaties 
were  also  made  with  the  other  countries  at  war  with 
France.  The  English  forces  had  subdued  the  French 
army  in  Egypt  in  1801,  and  the  Peace  of  Amiens  was  con- 
cluded with  England,  Spain  and  Holland  in  1802. 

Napoleon  at  this  time  was  greatly  occupied  with  the 
reestablishment  of  social  institutions  and  the  improvement 
of  civil  affairs.  A  general  amnesty  allowed  all  the 
emigres  to  return  to  France;  the  famous  new  order  of 
chivalry,  the  Legion  of  Honor,  was  established;  there  were 
again  a  court  and  a  brilliant  social  circle  in  the  capital  of 
France.  The  Catholic  religion  was  fully  restored:  the 
higher  education — especially  in  mathematics  and  physical 
science — was  promoted;  great  public  works  were  under- 
taken, and  agriculture,  manufactures,  and  commerce  were 
encouraged.  In  August,  1802,  Napoleon  was  proclaimed 
Consul  for  life  by  his  obsequious  Senate,  and  this  was  con- 
firmed by  a  plebiscite,  or  popular  vote  under  manhood  suf- 
frage, to  the  number  of  three  million.  Now  came  the 
greatest  of  his  services  to  France.  The  chief  jurists  of 
the  Nation,  under  Napoleon's  own  supervision,  drew  up 
the  famous  Code  Napoleon — a  body  of  laws  for  civil, 
penal,  commercial,  and  military  matters — still  used  in 
France  and  several  other  countries  of  Europe,  including 
Belgium  and  Italy.  The  gallery  of  the  Louvre  in  Paris 


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THE  NAPOLEONIC  WARS  257 

was  formed  with  the  works  of  art  stolen  from  Italy,  and 
France  was  started,  as  it  seemed,  on  a  peaceful  and  pros- 
perous career. 

But  Napoleon  could  not  prevent  all  opposition,  and  he 
took  severe  measures  to  put  an  end  to  all  plots.  In  1804 
a  conspiracy  was  alleged  to  have  been  discovered  in  Paris, 
having  for  its  object  the  overthrow  of  Bonaparte  and  the 
restoration  of  the  Bourbon  line  of  Kings,  then  represented 
by  the  Count  of  Provence,  brother  of  Louis  XVI.  The 
truth  as  to  this  affair  will  probably  never  be  known.  The 
friends  of  Napoleon  assert  that  the  British  Government 
was  engaged  in  the  plot;  his  enemies  declare  that  his  own 
Minister  of  Police,  Fouche,  formerly  a  revolutionist  and 
member  of  the  Convention,  enticed  the  royalist  partisans 
into  France  with  a  view-  to  their  destruction.  What  is 
certain  is  that  General  Pichegru,  the  conqueror  of  Holland 
in  1795,  George  Cadoudal,  a  Breton  leader,  head  of  the 
royalist  party  known  as  the  Chouans,  and  General  Moreau, 
the  victor  of  Hohenlinden,  were  arrested  as  conspirators. 
Cadoudal  was  executed,  Pichegru  was  found  dead  in 
prison,  and  Moreau  was  banished  for  life.  Of  Pichegru, 
Napoleon's  friends  assert  that  he  committed  suicide; 
Napoleon's  enemies  declare  that  he  was  murdered  by  the 
tyrant's  orders.  No  doubt,  however,  exists  as  to  Napo- 
leon's treatment  of  the  Due  d'Enghien.  This  young 
Prince,  son  of  Conde,  Duke  of  Bourbon,  had  fought 
against  the  Revolution  on  the  side  of  the  allies  in  1792,  and 
from  1796  to  1799.  In  March,  1804,  at  the  time  of  the 
alleged  conspiracy,  he  was  living  with  his  wife  at  Etten- 
heim.  on  Baden  territory,  and  the  fact  of  his  Bourbon 
blood  was  the  sole  ground  for  suspicion  against  him.  In 
order  to  strike  terror  into  the  Royalists,  Napoleon  now 
grossly  violated  humanity  and  the  law  of  nations.  D'En- 
ghien was  seized  by  an  armed  force  at  Ettenheim,  sent  by 
VOL.  2  —  17 


258  MODERN  EUROPE 

Napoleon's  orders,  in  violation  of  the  Duke  of  Baden's  ter- 
ritory. He  was  at  once  brought  to  the  fortress  of  Vin- 
cennes,  outside  Paris,  tried  and  sentenced  by  a  court-mar- 
tial on  a  charge  of  treason,  without  examination  of  wit- 
nesses or  means  of  defense. 

Terrorized  by  these  proceedings,  an  Imperial  Crown 
was  offered  Napoleon  in  1804  by  the  subservient  legisla- 
tive bodies,  and  his  acceptance  of  the  dignity  was  con- 
firmed by  an  immense  popular  vote.  The  Empire  was 
made  hereditary  in  the  male  issue  of  Napoleon,  his 
brothers  Joseph  and  Louis  following  in  the  order  of  suc- 
cession. A  new  aristocracy  was  created,  and  an  imperial 
court  was  started  with  full  splendor  of  equipment  and 
ceremony.  The  coronation  took  place  on  December  2, 
at  the  Cathedral  of  Notre  Dame,  Pope  Pius  VII  anoint- 
ing the  usurper;  while  Napoleon,  snatching  the  crown 
from  the  Pontiff's  hands,  crowned  first  himself  and  then 
the  Empress  Josephine.  In  May,  1805,  he  was  crowned 
King  of  Italy  in  the  Cathedral  of  Milan.  Fourteen  of  the 
chief  Generals  were  made  Marshals  of  France,  the  most 
distinguished  being  Bernadotte,  Jourdan,  Davoust,  Lan- 
nes,  Massena,  Murat,  Ney,  Soult,  and  Kellermann. 

If  Napoleon  had  possessed,  along  with  his  other  high 
qualities,  the  supreme  virtues  of  moderation  and  self- 
restraint,  he  would  have  died  ruler  of  France  and  arbiter 
of  the  whole  civilized  world.  The  crimes  of  his  career 
sprang,  not  from  innate  cruelty  or  vice,  but  from  unscru- 
pulous devotion  to  self-aggrandizement,  and  from  a  cer- 
tain sordid  lack  of  chivalrous  feeling  and  of  high  morai 
tone  commensurate  with  his  glorious  mental  endowments. 
He  was  the  victim,  again  and  again,  of  a  spirit  of  pre- 
sumptuous fatalism,  and  of  an  intoxication  of  soul  bred 
by  success  and  prosperity,  which  urged  him  onward  in  a 
course  of  aggression  that  armed  all  Europe  against  his 


THE  NAPOLEONIC  WARS  259 

power.  Bonaparte,  in  1802,  seized  Elba,  annexed  Pied- 
mont and  the  Duchy  of  Parma,  kept  military  possession  of 
Holland,  made  an  armed  "mediation"  in  the  affairs  of 
Switzerland,  assumed  the  mastery  of  Northern  Italy  as 
head  of  the  "Italian  (formerly  'Cisalpine')  Republic,"  and 
interfered  with  a  high  hand  in  German  affairs.  Finally 
he  aroused  England,  who  had  refused  to  withdraw  from 
Malta  in  accordance  with  the  terms  of  the  Peace  of 
Amiens.  He  was  ready  for  a  war,  as  by  the  ruin  of 
British  maritime  power  he  could  alone  hope  to  secure  mas- 
tery of  Europe  and  its  colonial  Empires.  The  retention 
of  Malta  gave  Napoleon  his  pretext  to  conduct  reprisals 
against  Great  Britain.  He  called  attention  to  the  fact  that 
without  declaring  war  the  British  had  seized  1,200  French 
and  Dutch  ships  in  the  colonies.  Napoleon  invaded  Han- 
over, then  still  in  the  possession  of  the  British  royal  house. 
He  seized  10,000  English  travelers  in  France  and  Holland 
and  sentenced  them  to  an  imprisonment  in  which  they 
were  kept  for  ten  years.  This  led  to  a  unanimous  demand 
in  England  for  war,  which  Napoleon  answered  by  imme- 
diately setting  on  foot  preparations  to  cross  the  Straits  of 
Dover  with  an  army.  England  was  alarmed.  Before 
the  end  of  1803  nearly  400,000  volunteers  had  enrolled 
themselves  for  the  defense  of  the  British  Isles  against  the 
threatened  invasion,  which  never  came.  It  was  then,  while 
a  naval  force  was  being  gathered  at  Boulogne  for  the  inva- 
sion, that  in  May,  1804,  William  Pitt  formed  the  third 
coalition  against  Napoleon,  including  Russia,  Austria,  and 
Sweden.  Spain  joined  France,  and  Prussia  remained  neu- 
tral, tempted  by  Napoleon's  promise  of  Hanover. 

The  invasion  of  England  failed,  not  through  the  fault 
of  Napoleon,  but  through  that  of  his  commander, 
Villeneuve.  In  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1805  he  had 
the  whole  fleets  of  Spain  and  Holland  behind  him  and  an 


260  MODERN  EUROPE 

armada  of  seventy  sail  were  at  Napoleon's  disposal.  On 
shore  were  troops  to  the  number  of  100,000  under  three  of 
his  ablest  Generals,  Ney,  Soult,  and  Devoust,  and  this  enor- 
mous army  had  been  trained  to  embark  on  the  vessels  in 
forty  minutes.  Treville,  his  Admiral  at  Toulon,  who 
knew  his  plans,  died,  and  his  death  caused  a  serious  delay. 
It  was  then  Napoleon  made  the  fatal,  for  him,  mistake  of 
choosing  Villeneuve  as  his  successor.  Napoleon  schemed 
to  decoy  the  English  ships  into  distant  seas,  so  that  the 
passage  of  his  troops  might  be  unobstructed.  His  own 
fleets  were  ordered  to  the  West  Indies  with  instructions 
to  return  immediately  to  Europe.  Nelson  fell  into  the 
snare  and  gave  chase  across  the  Atlantic,  but  thirty  days 
in  the  rear.  When  he  discovered  the  stratagem  he  sent  his 
swiftest  ship  to  England  to  intimate  the  danger  which 
impended.  His  warning  was  received  in  time  and  a  strong 
squadron  under  Sir  Robert  Calder  was  ready  to  meet  the 
returning  allies.  A  battle  ensued,  not  memorable  other- 
wise than  by  its  results,  which  were  in  the  highest  degree 
momentous.  French  fleets  were  at  Rochefort  and  Brest, 
while  a  powerful  Spanish  squadron  was  at  Ferrol.  Vil- 
leneuve had  positive  orders  to  sail  to  Brest,  and,  uniting 
the  fleet  there  with  his  own,  hasten  to  Boulogne.  The  road 
was  really  open,  as  Calder  was  on  his  way  to  Plymouth, 
and  Nelson  was  cruising  off  St.  Vincent,  in  ignorance  of 
Villeneuve' s  real  position.  But  Villeneuve,  in  dread  of 
Nelson,  took  shelter  in  Ferrol.  Had  he  dared  all  and  sailed 
onward  a  French  army  would  probably  have  landed  in 
England.  The  retreat  made  invasion  impossible,  at  once 
and  forever.  Three  months  later  Nelson  met  the  combined 
fleets  off  Cape  Trafalgar,  and  inflicted  upon  them  a  defeat 
which  was  well-nigh  annihilating.  This  great  triumph 
placed  beyond  challenge  the  naval  supremacy  of  Great 


THE  NAPOLEONIC  WARS  261 

Britain,  for  it  did  not  leave  afloat  any  power  fit  to  encoun- 
ter her  in  battle. 

Napoleon  knew,  so  soon  as  he  heard  oi  the  retreat  of 
his  fleet,  that  all  his  combinations  were  baffled,  and  that 
England  was  now  beyond  his  reach.  He  indulged  him- 
self in  a  free  expression  of  boundless  rage,  which  the  feeble 
conduct  of  his  Admiral  inspired,  and  then,  without  delay 
even  of  an  hour,  he  turned  to  a  field  where  the  most 
brilliant  success  of  his  life  awaited  him.  On  the  instant 
he  devised  the  campaign  of  Austerlitz.  With  a  prompti- 
tude unexampled  in  the  movements  of  so  large  bodies  of 
men,  his  armies  moved  from  the  shores  of  the  Channel, 
to  confront  his  enemies  on  the  Rhine.  In  September, 
1805,  he  marched  his  great  army  from  Boulogne  to 
Bavaria,  fell  upon  the  Austrians,  forced  the  incapable  Gen- 
eral Mack  to  surrender  at  Ulm  with  thirty  thousand  men, 
and  by  the  middle  of  November  had  reached  Schonbrunn, 
near  Vienna.  Entering  Vienna  as  a  conqueror,  he  pre- 
pared to  encounter  the  Russian  and  Austrian  armies  under 
their  respective  emperors.  On  December  2  he  completely 
routed  them  at  the  great  battle  of  Austerlitz,  in  Moravia, 
north  of  Vienna.  Austria  instantly  sued  for  peace,  and 
gave  up  to  France  Venetia,  Dalmatia,  and  other  Adriatic 
territory.  The  Russians  retreated  to  their  own  country, 
and  Hanover  was  handed  over  to  Prussia. 

The  Conqueror  then  turned  against  southern  Italy, 
picked  a  quarrel  with  the  King  of  Naples,  dethroned  him, 
and  made  his  brother  Joseph  King  in  his  room.  Another 
brother,  Louis,  was  made  King  of  Holland  on  the  extinc- 
tion of  the  Batavian  Republic.  Various  minor  sovereign- 
ties or  dukedoms  were  created  in  Italy  and  Germany  as 
rewards  for  successful  marshals.  The  most  important 
effect  of  Napoleon's  military  success  was  his  formation 
of  the  Confederation  of  the  Rhine,  in  place  of  the  now 


262  MODERN  EUROPE 

dissolved  old  German  Empire.  By  the  Peace  of  Presburg 
(December  26,  1805)  the  Electors  of  Bavaria  and  Wiir- 
temberg  became  Kings,  a  first  step  in  the  dissolution  of 
the  Empire,  and  in  July,  1806,  they  and  many  other  Ger- 
man Princes  formally  seceded  from  the  old  constitution  of 
Germany.  Napoleon  took  the  title  of  Protector  of  the 
Confederation  of  the  Rhine;  other  German  Princes  after- 
ward joined  the  new  body;  the  Elector  of  Saxony  be- 
came King;  in  1807  a  Kingdom  of  Westphalia  was  made 
out  of  provinces  conquered  from  Prussia  and  other  states, 
and  was  given  to  Jerome  Bonaparte,  youngest  brother  of 
Napoleon.  These  arrangements  lasted  until  1813,  when, 
after  Napoleon's  Russian  disaster,  the  Confederation  of 
the  Rhine  fell  to  pieces. 

Prussia  was  driven  to  war  with  France  in  October, 
1806,  by  Napoleon's  proposal  to  restore  Hanover  to  Eng- 
land as  a  basis  of  peace,  and  she  now  found  herself,  with- 
out an  effective  ally,  engaged  with  the  greatest  military 
power  of  Europe.  On  October  14,  Napoleon's  victory  at 
Jena,  and  his  General  Davoust's  at  Auerstadt,  laid  the 
Prussian  monarchy  prostrate:  Berlin  was  occupied,  the 
whole  country  conquered,  and  most  humiliating  terms  im- 
posed, including  a  limitation  of  the  military  force  which 
Prussia  was  allowed  to  maintain,  and  the  cession  of  nearly 
half  her  territory — Saxony,  Westphalia,  and  Prussian 
Poland. 

Russia  had  joined  the  Fourth  Coalition  against  France, 
•with  England,  Prussia,  Saxony,  and  Sweden.  Of  these 
England  was  triumphant  on  the  seas,  and  had  closed  them 
-to  Napoleon's  power  for  the  rest  of  his  career;  Saxony 
had  shared  Prussia's  fate  after  Jena;  Russia  remained  in 
the  field  for  Napoleon  to  deal  with.  The  Emperor  of  Rus- 
sia at  this  time  was  Alexander  I,  grandson  of  the  great 
Catharine,  the  partitioner  of  Poland.  Napoleon  was  at 


THE  NAPOLEONIC  WARS  263 

first  unsuccessful  against  the  Russian  army.  At  the  bat- 
tle of  Eylau  (February,  1807),  fought  amid  ice  and  snow 
with  the  most  dreadful  carnage,  he  received  a  decided 
check.  In  June,  however,  after  reinforcements  had  come 
up,  he  totally  defeated  Alexander's  troops  at  Friedland, 
and  brought  him  to  terms.  By  the  Peace  of  Tilsit  (July, 
1807)  Russia  withdrew  from  the  contest,  undertaking  to 
close  her  ports  against  British  vessels,  and,  by  a  secret 
article,  was  allowed  to  take  Finland  from  Sweden.  Russia 
also  recognized  the  new  Kingdoms  created  by  Napoleon. 
The  arrangement  between  Alexander  and  Napoleon  seems 
really  to  have  been  that  they  should  divide  between  them 
the  mastery  of  all  Europe.  Russia  and  France  were  hence- 
forward at  peace  for  five  years,  and  Russia  was  hostile 
to  England. 

Napoleon  was  now  supreme  in  Europe.  Nothing  in 
romance  approaches  the  facts  of  his  amazing  career.  He 
was  yet  only  39  years  of  age;  twelve  years  before  he  was 
an  unemployed  officer  of  artillery,  without  influence  or 
friends ;  now  he  made  or  unmade  kings,  and  regulated  at 
pleasure  the  destiny  of  nations,  no  man  daring  to  question 
what  he  did.  His  ascendancy  over  the  Emperor  of  Russia 
was  absolute.  Austria  was  silently  restoring  her  shattered 
strength,  but  as  yet  was  too  much  broken  to  oppose  her 
will  to  that  of  her  conqueror.  Prussia,  shorn  of  nearly 
half  of  her  population  and  territory  and  laid  under  crush- 
ing exactions,  could  only  nurse  in  secret  her  purposes  of 
revenge.  Many  of  the  smaller  German  States,  Italy,  and 
Holland  were,  for  all  warlike  purposes,  virtually  French 
territory.  The  fleets  of  Denmark,  Spain,  and  Portugal, 
were  at  his  command.  England  alone  maintained  hostility 
against  the  despotism  which  had  overspread  Europe. 

During  this  time  much  was  done  for  the  internal  ma- 
terial improvement  of  France.  Numerous  fine  buildings 


264  MODERN  EUROPE 

were  erected  in  Paris;  the  country  was  covered  with  well- 
made  roads;  the  great  excavations  were  begun  at  the  port 
of  Cherbourg;  canals  were  dug  from  Nantes  to  Brest,  and 
from  the  Rhine  to  the  Rhone;  industry  and  trade  were 
encouraged.  But  the  free  spirit  of  the  Nation  was  at  the 
same  time  repressed  by  a  rigorous  system  of  censorship 
and  police;  government  was  a  pure  despotism;  and  the 
strength  of  the  country  was  being  swiftly  undermined  by 
the  constant  drain  upon  its  manhood  through  conscription 
for  service  in  the  armies. 

The  three  chief  causes  of  Napoleon's  downfall  were — 
his  deadly  enmity  to  England,  his  attack  upon  Spain  and 
Portugal,  and  his  invasion  of  Russia  in  1812.  By  the 
first  he  aroused  the  determined  hostility  of  the  one  Nation 
in  Europe  that  was  sure  to  oppose  him  with  invincible 
tenacity  until  she  had  effected  his  overthrow;  by  the 
second  he  caused  the  Peninsular  War,  which  sapped  the 
warlike  strength  of  France;  by  the  third  he  shook  his  own 
military  position,  and  left  himself  helpless  against  com- 
bined Europe. 

It  was  by  his  famous  "Continental  System"  that  Na- 
poleon tried  to  ruin  the  commerce  of  England.  In  the 
Berlin  Decree  (November,  1806),  issued  after  the  battle 
of  Jena,  Napoleon  declared  the  British  Islands  in  a  state 
of  blockade;  all  correspondence  or  trade  with  them  was 
forbidden;  all  their  productions  and  manufactures  were 
pronounced  contraband;  British  subjects  on  the  Continent 
were  to  be  treated  as  prisoners  of  war,  and  their  goods 
as  lawful  prize.  The  effect  of  this  step  was  to  increase 
the  prosperity  of  England.  Her  fleets  and  cruisers  swept 
the  seas ;  nothing  could  be  obtained  from  her  colonies  save 
through  her,  and  the  Continental  merchants  organized  and 
kept  up  with  the  British  an  extensive  system  of  smuggling 
which  it  was  impossible  to  prevent. 


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THE  NAPOLEONIC  WARS  265 

Spain  and  Portugal  had  been  his  allies  in  his  wars, 
but  he  wished  to  make  them  part  of  France.  Napoleon 
attacked  Portugal  in  1807,  and  sent  an  army  under  Junot 
to  occupy  Lisbon,  because  the  Portuguese  had  refused  to 
act  on  the  Berlin  Decrees  against  her  ally,  England.  In 

1808  his  troops  invaded  Spain,  and  Joseph  Bonaparte  was 
transferred  from  the  throne  of  Naples  to  that  of  Spain, 
Marshal  Murat  becoming  King  of  Naples.    The  details  of 
the  Peninsular  War  are  told  in  the  life  of  Wellington  in 
the  volume  "Famous  Warriors."  In  a  contest  of  nearly  six 
years'  duration,  Wellington  drove  the  French  by  degrees 
out  of  Portugal  and  Spain,  entering  France  early  in  1814. 
The  effect  of  this  struggle  upon  Europe  was  that  it  con- 
vinced the  nations  that  the  French  armies  were  not  invin- 
cible, and  encouraged  them  to  rise  and  throw  off  the  yoke. 

The  Fifth  Coalition  against  France  was  formed  in 

1809  by  England,  Austria,  Portugal,  and  Spain.     Early 
in  the  year,  during  Napoleon's  absence  in  Spain,  Austria 
declared  war  and  invaded  Bavaria.    Napoleon  hurried  to 
the  scene  of  action,  defeated  the  Archduke  Charles  at  Eck- 
muhl  in  April,  and  again  entered  Vienna  as  a  conqueror 
on  May  13.     The  Archduke  Charles,  with  great  ability 
and  energy,  reorganized  his  country's  forces,  marched  on 
Vienna,  and,  being  attacked  by  Napoleon,  defeated  him  at 
Aspern  on  May  21,  and  fought  a  hard  battle  again- the  next 
day  at  Essling,  driving  the  French  back  to  the  Island  of 
Lobau,  on  the  Danube.    On  July  6,  however,  the  Austrians 
were  utterly  defeated  at  the  great  battle  of  Wagram,  and 
Napoleon  dictated  terms  at  Schonbrunn  in  October.    The 
Peace  of  Vienna  ended  the  war  with  further  loss  of  terri- 
tory in  the  southwest  by  Austria. 

Napoleon  had  determined  to  divorce  his  wife  Jose- 
phine, because  he  had  no  children  to  carry  on  the  line  of 
Emperors  which  he  seemed  to  have  securely  founded,  and 


266  MODERN  EUROPE 

also  in  order  to  strengthen  his  position  in  Europe  by  mar- 
riage-alliance with  one  of  the  old  dynasties.  On  Decem- 
ber 1 6,  1809,  the  act  of  divorce  was  passed,  and  in  April, 

1810,  Napoleon  married  the  Emperor  of  Austria's  daugh- 
ter, the  Archduchess  Maria  Louisa.    A  son  was  born  in 

1811,  who  was  styled  "King  of  Rome";    but  he  never 
reigned,  and   died,  under  his  Austrian  title  of   Duke  of 
Reichstadt,  in  1832.     In  1809  he  had  annexed  Tuscany 
and  the  Papal  States  in  Italy;  in  1810  he  united  Holland 
to  France,  on  his  brother  Louis'  resignation  of  the  throne, 
and  took  to  himself  the  Hanseatic  towns,  Bremen,  Lubeck, 
and  Hamburg.     His  Empire  extended  from  Denmark  to 
Naples,  with  capitals  at  Paris,  Rome,  and  Amsterdam, 
and  had  a  total  population  of  over  forty  millions.     His 
influence  was  also  supreme  at  this  time  in  most  of  Spain, 
in  Switzefland,  and  over  all  Germany. 

It  was  Napoleon's  "Continental  System"  that  caused 
the  quarrel  with  Russia  which  had  so  fatal  an  influence  on 
his  power  and  position  in  Europe.  Russia,  suffering  under 
the  blockade  of  her  ports  against  English  trade,  had  par- 
tially relaxed  the  system,  and  Napoleon  insisted  on  Alex- 
ander's compliance  with  his  orders.  The  Russian 
Emperor  resisted  this  dictation,  and  the  result  was  war, 
Austria  and  Prussia  being  compelled  to  aid  France  with  a 
part  of  their  armies.  In  June,  1812,  Napoleon  invaded 
Russia  by  crossing  the  Niemen  with  over  half  a  million 
of  men,  about  two  hundred  thousand  being  French,  and  the 
rest  Germans,  Poles,  Italians,  and  Swiss.  The  Russians 
encountered  him  with  great  skill  and  determination,  under 
their  Generals  Kutusoff,  Barclay  de  Tolly,  Bagration,  and 
Wittgenstein;  Napoleon  gained  some  victories,  but  paid 
dearly  for  them.  Smolensk  was  taken  in  August,  and  the 
French  marched  on  Moscow,  gaining  the  desperate  battle 
of  Borodino  with  a  loss  of  40,000  men  to  each  side. 


THE  NAPOLEONIC  WARS  267 

Moscow  was  entered  on  September  15,  but  was  fired  and 
almost  destroyed  by  the  Russians.  Alexander  would  not 
negotiate;  supplies  were  wanting;  the  Russians  were  not 
cowed,  as  Napoleon  had  hoped,  by  the  loss  of  their  ancient 
capital ;  and  in  the  face  of  the  coming  winter,  the  French 
retreated  towarcj  Germany  on  October  19,  numbering  now 
80,000  men.  The  Russian  attacks  and  the  cold  almost 
destroyed  the  remains  of  the  "grand  army,"  and  but  a  few 
thousands  recrossed  the  Niemen  on  December  20.  The 
expedition  had  ended  in  one  of  the  greatest  military  dis- 
asters recorded  in  all  history. 

The  political  results  of  the  Moscow  campaign  were 
necessarily  of  extreme  importance.  Napoleon  was  the 
abhorred  oppressor  of  Germany,  but  his  power  had  been 
such  that  resistance  was  hopeless,  and  Germany  had  to 
suffer  the  humiliation  of  sending  troops  to  fight  under  the 
banner  of  the  tyrant.  But  with  the  destruction  of  the 
French  army  hope  dawned  upon  the  suffering  and  degra- 
dation of  years.  Prussia,  without  loss  of  time  and  under 
the  influence  of  a  vehement  popular  impulse,  entered  into 
an  engagement  with  Russia  to  aid  her  in  a  war  with 
France.  Austria  followed — not  inconsiderably  strength- 
ened in  her  disposition  by  an  offer  of  £10,000,000  from 
England.  Sweden  sent  an  army  under  Napoleon's  old 
Marshal,  Bernadotte,  to  join  the  allies.  The  Emperor  was 
not  yet  wholly  without  friends.  Denmark  adhered  to  him 
in  the  days  of  adversity,  as  did  several  of  the-  smaller 
States.  But  the  balance  was  hopelessly  against  him.  The 
Sixth  Coalition  of  Nations  was  formed  against  France 
(in  1813),  and  consisted,  in  the  end,  of  Russia,  Prussia, 
England,  Austria,  Sweden,  and  some  smaller  German 
States.  With  wonderful  energy  Napoleon  had  raised  a 
new  force  of  200,000  men  in  France,  and  headed  in  all 
nearly  double  that  number.  In  May  he  defeated  the  allies 


268  MODERN  EUROPE 

at  Liitzen  and  Bautzen,  but  made  another  fatal  mistake  in 
trying  to  negotiate  when  his  only  chance  of  safety  lay 
in  swift  strokes,  such  as  he  well  knew  how  to  deal.  He 
made  an  armistice  for  six  weeks  in  June,  1813,  and  the 
allies  had  time  given  to  rally  against  him  just  when  he 
was  ready  for  instant  action. 

When  the  campaign  reopened  in  August  the  allies  had 
nearly  600,000  men  at  command,  headed  by  Prince 
Schwarzenberg,  the  brave  Prussian,  Marshal  Bliicher, 
Biilow,  and  Bernadotte.  Napoleon  gained  a  victory  at 
Dresden  on  August  26-27,  but  after  this  his  Marshals  were 
again  and  again  defeated  in  different  quarters;  the  German 
troops  deserted  daily  to  the  allies;  and  in  the  great  two- 
days'  battle  of  Leipsic  (October  18  and  19,  1813),  fought 
by  over  half  a  million  of  men  (330,000  allies  against  190,- 
ooo  under  Napoleon),  the  French  Emperor  was  entirely 
defeated.  He  retired  over  the  Rhine  into  France,  and  was 
henceforth  on  his  defense  against  enraged  and  victorious 
Europe. 

At  the  end  of  1813  France  was  invaded  from  the  south 
by  Wellington,  and  on  the  east  by  the  vast  armies  of  the 
allies.  In  the  campaign  of  1814,  on  the  soil  of  France, 
Napoleon  displayed  the  most  wonderful  energy  and  skill, 
striking  well-aimed  blows  this  way  and  that  against 
thronging  assailants,  and  fighting  them  off  from  approach 
to  his  capital  with  a  strategy  that  has  never  been  surpassed. 
All  his  efforts  were  vain  against  overwhelming  numbers 
of  soldiers  who  had  ceased  to  dread  the  French,  and 
against  Generals  to  whom  Napoleon  had  himself  taught 
the  art  of  war  in  his  successes  won  over  them.  His  vic- 
tories at  Montmirail,  Nangis,  Montereau,  and  elsewhere 
at  first  made  the  grand  allied  army  retreat,  and  the  Sov- 
ereigns began  to  negotiate,  but  fighting  was  soon  renewed. 
A  defeat  of  Napoleon  by  Bliicher  at  Laon,  and  indecisive 


THE  NAPOLEONIC  WARS  269 

battles  Craon  and  Arcis-sur-Aube  wore  out  his  means  of 
resistance,  and  Paris  was  forced  to  surrender  on  March 
31.  Napoleon's  abdication  sent  him  an  exile  to  the  Island 
of  Elba,  on  the  Italian  coast;  and  the  Bourbon  line  was 
restored  to  the  throne  of  France  in  the  person  of  Louis 
XVTs  brother,  who  took  the  title  of  Louis  XVIII.  The 
young  Dauphin,  son  of  Louis  XVI,  died  in  prison  during 
the  Revolution,  and  is  reckoned  as  Louis  XVII. 

While  the  First  Congress  of  Vienna  was  discussing 
the  rearrangement  of  the  States  oi  Europe,  Napoleon 
escaped  from  Elba,  landed  at  Frejus,  southwest  of  Cannes, 
on  March  I,  1815,  and  was  welcomed  by  his  old  army  and 
many  of  his  Marshals.  He  entered  Paris  on  March  20, 
Louis  XVIII  having  already  fled  to  Ghent.  The  Allied 
Powers  at  once  declared  him  an  outlaw,  and  prepared 
immense  armies  for  his  overthrow.  Only  one  of  these  was 
needed — that  of  the  English,  Prussians,  Belgians,  and 
Hanoverians,  under  the  Duke  of  Wellington  and  Marshal 
Bliicher.  A  short,  sharp,  and  decisive  campaign,  described  in 
the  biography  o>f  Wellington  in  the  Volume  "Famous  War- 
riors," ended  at  Waterloo  on  June  18.  Napoleon  was  cap- 
tured in  his  endeavor  to  escape  to  America,  and  sent  to 
St.  Helena,  where  he  died  on  May  5,  1821,  after  the  most 
wonderful  career,  considered  in  all  points,  recorded  in  the 
history  of  the  world.  His  remains  lie  under  the  dome 
of  the  military  hospital  at  Paris — the  Hotel  des  Invalides 
— to  which  they  were  removed  in  1840.  Those  interested 
in  the  career  o<f  this  remarkable  man,  whose  glory  is 
beyond  cavil,  will  find  an  interesting  account  of  it  in  the 
volume  ''Famous  Warriors."  We  have  here  only  given 
the  details  necessary  to  an  understanding  of  the  history 
of  Modern  Europe. 


REORGANIZATION  OF  EUROPE 

The  conquests  of  Napoleon  had  marvelously  dis- 
ordered the  territorial  arrangements  of  Europe.  When  the 
Revolution  began  there  were  between  three  and  four  hun- 
dred sovereign  powers  on  the  Continent.  There  were  a  few 
great  and  powerful  States,  and  a  multitude  of  very  small 
ones — each  with  its  miniature  court,  and  its  petty  army, 
and  its  despotic  code  of  laws  emanating  from  the  will  of 
the  Prince,  and  conflicting  vexatiously  with  the  codes 
enacted  by  the  surrounding  Princes. 

Italy  was  one  of  the  countries  thus  unfortunately  cir- 
cumstanced. Italy  had  once  been  firmly  compacted  under 
the  strong  rule  of  ancient  Rome;  but  when  Rome  fell, 
every  barbarian  chief  possessed  himself  of  what  he  could, 
and  Italy  sank  into  a  multitude  of  petty  states.  Charle- 
magne for  a  space  recombined  the  fragments,  or  most  of 
them,  under  his  own  rule.  The  Tribune  Rienzi  dreamed 
of  uniting  Italy  in  a  great  federal  republic,  o<f  which  Rome 
should  be  the  head.  But  the  Eighteenth  Century  closed 
upon  Italy  still  disintegrated  and  powerless  for  her  own 
defense.  Piedmont  and  Naples  were  independent  King- 
doms. Venice,  the  oldest  State  in  Europe,  although  griev- 
ously decayed,  still  maintained  her  precarious  existence. 
Austria  ruled  in  Lombardy.  The  Pope  exercised  paternal 
sway  over  2,000,000  miserably  governed  subjects. 
Genoa  was  ruled  by  an  aristocracy.  There  were  several 
duchies;  and  some  of  the  free  cities  which  sprang  up  so 
vigorously  in  the  Twelfth  Century  now  swelled  out  into 
little  states.  There  was  no  federation.  The  petty  mon- 
archs  could  enter  into  treaties  to  unite  their  toy  armies 

270 


REORGANIZATION  OF  EUROPE  271 

for  mutual  defense,  but  there  was  no  organization  for  that 
purpose,  and  Italy  was  practically  at  the  mercy  of  any 
strong  invader. 

Germany  was  composed  of  nearly  three  hundred  inde- 
pendent powers.  There  were  princes  civil  and  princes 
ecclesiastical;  there  were  electors;  there  were  free  towns; 
there  were  some  kings  of  secondary  importance;  there 
were  also  the  great  Austrian  and  Prussian  monarchies. 
Over  this  constituency,  the  King  of  Austria  exercised  the 
authority  of  Emperor,  representing  in  a  shadowy  way  the 
old  Caesars,  whose  dignities  he  was  supposed  to  have 
inherited.  Each  of  the  petty  states  might  be  required  to 
contribute  troops  for  the  defense  of  the  Empire.  But  it 
was  only  from  the  more  considerable  members  of  the  fed- 
eration that  help  could  be  obtained.  The  revenues  of  the 
smaller  states  could  do  little  more  than  support  the  out- 
lays of  the  Sovereign,  with  his  train  of  unprofitable  and 
burdensome  dependents.  Austria  had  for  centuries  pre- 
dominated in  Central  Europe.  Her  population  numbered 
25,000,000.  In  addition  to  her  German  territory,  she 
possessed  Flanders,  Lombardy,  Hungary,  and  the  Tyrol. 
Prussia  had  as  yet  scarcely  been  admitted  to  the  rank  of 
a  first-class  power.  Her  population  was  only  8,000,000. 
But  her  military  organization  was  effective;  the  victories 
which  she  gained  under  the  great  Frederick  had  given  her 
confidence  in  her  own  prowess;  strong  national  impulses 
pointed  to  aggrandizement  at  the  cost  of  her  weaker  neigh- 
bors. 

The  national  existence  of  Poland  had  recently  been 
subverted  by  the  arms  of  Russia,  Austria,  and  Prussia,  and 
her  territory  divided  among  the  conquerors.  She  had  not 
relinquished  her  earnest  desire  for  unity  and  independence, 
nor  for  many  years  was  she  to  desist  from  heroic  efforts  to 
regain  them. 


27-s  MODERN  EUROPE 

Holland  was  leading  a  quiet  existence  under  a  republi- 
can form  of  government.  Her  neighbor,  Belgium,  after 
centuries  of  vicissitude,  was  prospering  beside  her  under 
the  rule  of  Austria. 

Switzerland  was  a  federation  of  twenty-two  little 
republics.  Her  whole  population  was  only  2,000,000. 
For  two  centuries  she  had  cherished  her  independence,  and 
from  a  position  of  well-established  neutrality  looked 
serenely  down  upon  the  contests  which  desolated  her 
neighbors.  Over  states  thus  circumstanced  the  tide  of 
French  invasion  rolled  for  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century. 

The  great  monarchs  who  had  overthrown  Napoleon 
had  now  to  bring  order  out  of  the  territorial  confusion 
which  he  had  created,  and  to  make  restitution  to  a  crowd 
of  dethroned  princes.  It  was  work  of  unexampled  diffi- 
culty; on  its  wise  performance  hung  the  welfare  of  gen- 
erations. Unhappily  the  monarchs  who  then  held  the  des- 
tinies of  Europe  in  their  hands  did  not  rise  to  the  great- 
ness of  their  opportunity.  It  was  not  a  reconstruction 
of  Europe  which  they  sat  down  to  accomplish,  with  a  wise 
regard  to  the  wants  of  the  European  people.  The  Ambas- 
sadors met  at  the  Congress  of  Vienna  in  September,  1814- 
June,  1815,  to  satisfy  the  demands  of  a  horde  of  bereaved 
princes.  They  met  in  the  spirit  of  a  supreme  regard  to  per- 
sonal interests.  Their  avowed  object  was  to  restore  to 
Europe  as  nearly  as  possible  the  political  arrangements 
which  existed  before  the  war.  They  took  no  account  of 
the  vast  changes  Which  the  war  had  caused.  They  were 
blind  to  the  new  impulses  which  had  risen  to  unsuspected 
strength,  and  were  henceforth  to  shape  out  the  destinies  of 
Europe.  On  every  petty  throne  they  would  reseat  the 
petty  despot  who  had  occupied  it  before.  Certain  weak 
states  which  lay  near  France  were  strengthened,  the  better 
to  withstand  the  encroachments  which  that  unquiet  power 


REORGANIZATION  OF  EUROPE  273 

might  be  expected  to  attempt  when  her  strength  returned. 
Otherwise,  the  worn-out  system  of  the  Eighteenth  Cen- 
tury was  to  be  faithfully  reproduced.  A  reconstruction  of 
Europe  on  this  principle  could  not  be  lasting;  but  it  cost 
Europe  many  years  and  much  blood  to  undo  it. 

Absolute  monarchy  was  about  to  enter  upon  a  period 
of  swift,  almost  sudden  decay.  But  its  splendors  were  yet 
untarnished.  Indeed,  absolute  power  never  seemed  so  far 
beyond  reach  of  decay  as  w"hen  four  or  five  men  sat  down 
in  Vienna  to  regulate  the  political  destinies  of  the  Euro- 
pean people — no  other  thought  than  that  of  submission 
presenting  itself  to  any  of  the  victims  of  their  arrange- 
ments. The  success  of  their  arms  had  made  the  allied 
monarchs  supreme  in  Europe.  Neither  they  themselves 
nor  the  European  people  questioned  their  right  to  dispose 
of  territories  and  races  according  to  their  own  pleasure, 

They  had  at  the  outset  to  deal  with  France,  and  they 
did  so  justly.  France  was  at  one  stroke  divested  of  terri- 
tories which  held  a  population  of  32,000,000 — the  enor- 
mous gains  of  Napoleon's  unscrupulous  aggressions.  All 
that  France  had  unlawfully  acquired  she  was  now  com- 
pelled to  relinquish.  It  was  the  design  of  the  allies  that 
she  should  resume  the  identical  dimensions  of  1792;  and 
this  substantially  was  effected,  although  several  unimpor- 
tant modifications  in  the  direction  both  of  increase  and 
diminution  left  her  to  a  small  extent  a  gainer. 

Italy  awoke  from  her  dream  of  unity.  Lombardy  was 
given  back  to  Austria.  Venice,  humbled  and  indignant, 
was  added  to  the  gift.  The  Pope  resumed  his  temporal 
sovereignty.  The  Bourbons  quickly  regained  the  throne 
of  Naples.  The  dukes  swarmed  back  to  their  paltry 
thrones,  as  dependencies  on  Austria.  Genoa  was  'handed 
over  to  Sardinia,  with  Piedmont  and  Savoy,  amid  the 

vehement  but  unheeded  remonstrances  of  the  people  thus 
VOL.  2  —  18 


374  MODERN  EUROPE 

transferred.  Italy  was  once  more  a  mass  of  incohering 
fragments.  But  the  desire  for  unity,  although  frustrated 
for  half  a  century,  was  already  enkindled  in  strength  suf- 
ficient to  compel  fulfillment. 

Germany,  too,  received  back  her  innumerable  sover- 
eignties. Only  they  were  knit  together  in  a  league,  of 
which  Austria  and  Prussia  were  supreme  directors.  The 
states  forming  this  confederation  were  bound  to  afford 
mutual  support  against  foreign  attack.  Austria,  as  the 
most  powerful  member  of  the  union,  naturally  looked  to  be 
its  head.  But  the  rising  strength  and  ambition  of  Prussia 
involved  a  perilous  competition  for  the  coveted  supremacy. 

Holland  and  Belgium  were  crushed  together  into  a 
Kingdom.  Hanover,  for  the  possession  of  which  Prussia 
sinned  and  suffered  so  grievously,  was  restored  to  Eng- 
land. Norway  was  annexed  to  Sweden.  Switzerland  had 
a  constitution  bestowed  upon  her  by  royal  hands,  and, 
having  meekly  accepted  it,  resumed  her  independence. 
The  old  partition  of  Poland  was  confirmed,  with  some 
modifications  in  the  interest  of  Russia,  and  a  people  num- 
bering 15,000,000  were  formally  handed  over  to  Russia, 
Austria,  and  Prussia.  The  poor  King  of  Saxony  had  a 
hard  fate.  He  had  adhered  too  faithfully  to  the  falling 
Emperor,  and  thus  in  the  Congress  he  had  few  friends. 
Prussia  claimed  the  whole  of  his  territory.  Ultimately 
she  consented  to  accept  something  less  than  the  half  of  her 
demand. 

England  came  with  credit  and  dignity  out  of  this  igno- 
ble contest  over  the  spoils  of  war.  She  gave  back  to 
France  and  her  allies  all  the  colonies  which  she  had  taken, 
with  some  inconsiderable  exceptions.  She  asked  nothing 
for  herself  but  the  glory  of  having  contributed  to  the  deliv- 
erance of  Europe. 

At  length  the  settlement  was  complete.    The  monarchs 


REORGANIZATION  OF  EUROPE  275 

were  able  to  cherish  the  pleasing  conviction  that  they  had 
created  a  perfect  and  enduring  political  equilibrium.  The 
European  powers  were  now  so  happily  balanced  that  per- 
fect tranquillity  would  gladden  the  tormented  nations. 
But  they  omitted  from  their  calculations  one  most  vital 
factor.  They  took  no  thought  of  the  European  people. 
Their  ingeniously:  devised  system  was  abhorred  by  the 
people  who  were  required  to  live  under  it.  For  half  a 
century  to  come  many  o£  the  nations  had  to  give  their 
energies  to  the  overthrow  of  the  balance  which  the  Con- 
gress of  Vienna  established. 


THE   HOLY   ALLIANCE 

The  stipulations  of  the  Congress  of  Vienna  (June  9, 
1815)  were  the  most  important  diplomatic  act  in  Europe 
since  the  Peace  of  Westphalia,  which  concluded  the  Thirty 
Years'  War.  Three  rulers,  those  of  Austria,  Russia  and 
Prussia,  attempted  to  give  to  it  a  religious  consecration. 
On  September  14,  1816,  under  the  inspiration  of  the  Czar 
Alexander,  they  signed  at  Paris  the  treaty  of  the  Holy 
Alliance,  by  which  they  asserted,  "to  the  world  their 
unshakable  determination  to  take  for  the  rule  of  their  con- 
duct, whether  in  the  administration  of  their  respective 
states  or  their  political  relations  with  all  other  govern- 
ments, only  the  precepts  of  the  Christian  religion,  of 
justice,  of  charity,  and  of  peace."  Therefore  they  bound 
themselves  in  the  first  article  to  regard  each  other  as 
brothers,  in  the  second  to  show  to  each  other  an  unalterable 
friendship,  and  to  consider  themselves  as  commissioned 
by  Providence  to  govern  three  branches  of  the  same  fam- 
ily: to-wit,  Austria,  Russia  and  Prussia,  forming  only 
one  Christian  nation  having  for  sovereign  "Him  to  whom 
belongs  all  power  because  in  Him  one  finds  all  the  treasures 
of  love,  of  science,  and  of  infinite  wisdom."  The  treaty 
of  the  Holy  Alliance  could  not  be  signed  by  Kings  in  Con- 
stitutional countries,  but  all  could  share  and  sustain  its 
principles,  which  were  really  to  stifle  all  demands  for  poli- 
tical freedom.  Undertaken  in  the  name  of  the  Church,  the 
Alliance  received  papal  aid. 

The  Revolution  of  1789,  undertaken  to  assure  the 
greatest  possible  amount  of  liberty,  had  on  the  contrary 
increased  the  strength  of  the  government  in  those  coun- 

276 


THE  HOLY  ALLIANCE  277 

tries  where  it  had  momentarily  triumphed,  as  well  as  in 
those  which  had  only  felt  its  reaction.  Twenty-three  years 
of  war  had  accustomed  the  people  to  furnish  more  largely 
the  tax  of  blood  and  of  money.  They  paid  more  taxes 
and  conscription  had  replaced  voluntary  enlistment. 
Besides  the  administrative  authority,  distributed  formerly 
into  many  intermediate  bodies,  was  concentrated  entirely 
in  the  hands  of  the  Prince,  as  an  energetic  centralization 
had  placed  in  his  hands  all  of  the  national  strength.  The 
governments  were  stronger  in  1815  than  in  1789.  They 
had  more  resources  to  compel  obedience,  and  they  no 
longer  encountered  the  traditional  obstacles  which  seemed 
so  weak  but  which  were  so  strong.  Leipsic  and  Waterloo 
had  made  them  masters  of  the  world.  They  undertook  to 
organize  their  conquests  in  a  manner  to  restore  order,  and 
this  order  soon  appeared  to  them  to  be  unassured  except 
on  condition  of  arresting  all  movement — that  is,  to  stifle 
the  new  life  which  was  for  them,  as  Frederick  William  IV 
expressed  it,  only  the  "contagion  of  impiety."  This  was 
the  work  which  the  Holy  Alliance  attempted.  It  was  in 
effect  to  fight  revolution  with  the  allied  forces  of  all  the 
sovereigns,  who  were  to  brook  no  interference  with  their  * 
rule.  Armies  were  to  stifle  aspirations  for  liberty  or 
reform.  Though  signed  only  by  the  three  Emperors,  it 
really  was  supported  by  every  important  military  power 
in  Europe  with  the  exception  of  Great  Britain,  which  then 
adopted  its  policy  of  non-intervention.  Yet  even  in  Eng- 
land the  Tories  governed  in  the  interests  of  the  Crown 
and  against  those  of  the  people  who  had  no  share  in  the 
government,  Parliament  being  by  no  means  representative. 
It  seemed  as  if  nothing  had  taken  place  in  Europe  during 
the  last  quarter  of  a  century.  In  truth  the  people  had 
learned  how  sweet  is  liberty  and  that  it  can  be  obtained  if 
sought.  So  they  revolted. 


.278  MODERN  EUROPE 

Repression  first  produced  .plots  and  assassinations  and 
then,  revolutions.  The  first  serious  -stand  made  by  the 
friends  of  papular  government  against  the  Holy  Alliance 
was  in  Spain,  when  the  Spaniards,  after  -the  fall  of  Napo- 
leon, had  restored  to  the  Bourbon  monarch,  Ferdinand 
VII,  the  crown  conquered  for  him  and  without  him.  The 
delegates  of  the  Cortes  went  to  meet  him  on  the  frontier 
to  present  to  him  the  constitution  of  1812.  "Do  not  for- 
get," they  said,  "that  on  the  day  that  you  violate  it,  the 
solemn  compact  which  has  made  you  King  will  be  broken." 
Some  weeks  later  Ferdinand  tore  this  constitution  to 
pieces  amd  .never  substituted  .another  for  it.  He  .pushed  his 
persecution  with  so  great  cr-uelty  that  the  members  of  the 
Holy  Alliance  themselves  protested,  but  in  vain  (1.817). 
Conspiracies  multiplied  with  executions,  and  isolated  riot- 
ings  were  followed  'by  an  insurrection  of  the  whole  army. 
Riego  at  Cadiz  (Jian.  5,  1820).,  and  Mina  in  the  Pyrenees, 
proclaimed  the  constitution  of  r8i2.  Ferdina-md,  aban- 
doned by  everyone,  swore  fidelity  to  it.  Before  reaction- 
ary Europe  had  recovered  from  its  surprise  other  revolu- 
tions ensued.  The  Spanish  revolution  was  followed 
fey  a  similar  outbreak  in  Portugal.  In  Naples  another 
•Ferdinand,  as  great  a  tyrant  and  as  great  a  coward,  and 
•who  ruled  by  virtue  of  the  authority  of  the  Congress  of 
Vienna,  found  himself  forced  by  a  public  demonstration 
to  grant  a  constitution  to  his  people.  Even  in  Turkey  the 
tendency  was  felt,  where  the  'Greeks  and  the  Roumanians 
attempted  revolution  in  March  and  April,  1821. 

The  Emperors  trembled,  and  at  the  suggestion  of  Met- 
temiich — -a  -man  :o.f  .-great  skill  and  w-ho  as  prime  minister 
•of  Austria  was  .its  neal  ruler  through  the  Emperor — 
•Congresses  were  tkel:d,  first  a»t  Iroppaii  (-1-82.0)  and  later 
at  -Laabadn.  •(L&SI),.  lit  was  then  decided  that  the  mon- 


THE  HOLY  ALLIANCE  279 

archs  of  Europe  should  lend  their  aid  to  the  maintenance 
of  the  present  order,  and  in  the  case  of  Spain  and  Italy 
to  the  restoration  of  the  condition  made  by  the  Constitution 
Congress  of  Vienna.  The  Congress  of  Laibach  declared : 
"Useful  or  necessary  changes  in  the  legislation  and  admin- 
istration of  the  States  are  to  emanate  only  from  the  free 
will,  the  enlightened  and  the  deliberate  impulse  of  those 
whom  God  has  made  rendered  depositaries  of  power." 
The  divine  right  of  Kings  was  declared,  and  it  was  to  be 
enforced  by  the  sword.  Great  Britain  held  apart,  fearing 
that  some  -day  the  powers  might  feel  sufficiently  strong  to 
interfere  in  her  internal  affairs,  and  Castlereagh  declared 
in  the  British  Parliament  that  no  power  has  the  right  to 
interfere  in  the  affairs  of  another  power  simply  because 
the  latter  makes  changes  in  the  Government  which  do  not 
please  the  former.  "There  are  revolutions  which  are  just 
and  necessary,"  declared  Castlereagh. 

The  policy  was  to  be  initiated  by  the  restoration  by 
Austria  in  Naples  of  what  Metternich  called  "order."  An 
Austrian  army  set  out  from  Venetian  Lombardy.  Formid- 
able as  it  was,  it  was  announced  that  it  was  to  be  followed 
by  100,000  Russians.  The  recruits  of  the  Pope  and  of, 
Santa  Rosa  were  unable  to  withstand  the  skilled  veterans 
of  the  Napoleonic  wars  in  the  skirmishes  at  Rieti  and 
Novara,  and  the  Austrians  entered  Naples,  Turin  and 
Messina.  Jails  were  filled  and  revolutionists  were 
executed  as  the  army  advanced.  All  captured  in  Pied- 
mont were  beheaded,  while  in  Sicilyat  one  time  the  prisons 
contained  16,000  patriots.  To  prevent  the  spread  of  rev- 
olution the  King  of  Sardinia  established  forced  labor  and 
decreed  that  no  one  should  be  allowed  to  learn  to  read,  who 
did  not  possess  property  to  the  value  of  $300  ( 1825  ) .  The 
King  of  Naples  forbade  the  importation  of  most  foreign 


28o  MODERN  EUROPE 

books  in  order  to  keep  his  subjects  in  ignorance.  To  ensure 
the  payment  of  taxes  and  the  obedience  of  his  subjects  he 
kept  10,000  Swiss  mercenaries  by  his  side. 

Metternich  took  great  pride  in  the  state  of  affairs  in 
Italy.  He  now  declared  that  the  Spanish  peninsula  ought 
to  be  reduced  to  the  same  subjection.  At  a  new  congress 
held  at  Verona  the  Continental  powers  resolved  on  inter- 
vention in  Spain,  and  France  was  chosen  as  the  power 
to  rob  the  Spaniards  of  their  liberty.  An  army  of  the  same 
soldiers  who  had  before  sown  the  seeds  of  liberty  through 
Europe,  now  invaded  Spain,  under  the  Duke  of  Angou- 
leme  and  (1823)  restored  King  Ferdinand  to  absolute 
power.  Ferdinand  made  arbitrary  arrests  and  executed  all 
the  Liberals  on  whom  he  could  lay  hfs  hands,  to  celebrate 
his  return  to  absolute  power.  A  counter  revolution  at  Lis- 
bon followed  that  at  Madrid,  and  the  King  declared  the 
constitution  of  Portugal  abolished  and  ruled  for  a  few 
months  with  absolute  power.  But  the  French  armies  and 
the  Holy  Alliance  could  not  restore  to  Spain  her  vast 
American  colonies,  which  had  been  lost  during  and  since 
the  Napoleonic  wars.  One  by  one  they  had  revolted  and 
the  Monroe  Doctrine,  announced  by  the  great  Republic 
pf  the  United  States  at  the  suggestion  of  Canning,  checked 
the  Holy  Alliance  in  any  attempt  to  restore  South  America 
to  the  Bourbons.  (See  volume  American  History.) 

Cowed  by  the  display  of  force,  the  people  of  Europe 
seemed  submissive  to  the  doctrine  of  the  divine  right  of 
Kings  to  misgovern  their  subjects. 


s  >• 

1-1  <U 

H  13 

w  n 

fc  ^ 


o    % 

Q    1 


PROGRESS    OF   LIBERAL   IDEAS 

One  people  won  freedom  at  about  this  time,  when  lib- 
eral ideas  were  being  repressed  by  the  powers  of  the  Holy 
Alliance  with  the  support  of  the  old  regime.    The  magic 
name  of  Greece  aroused  such  sympathy  among  the  peoples 
of  the  West  that  their  governments  were  unable  to  resist 
it.    Greece  had  been  under  the  rule  of  Turkey  from  1715, 
and  the  cruelty  of  the  Sultan  led  to  an  insurrection  in 
March,  1821,  under  the  patriot  Ypsilanti,  who  was  later 
joined   by   Marcos   Bozzaris,    Constantine   Kanaris   and 
Mavrocordato — names  that  became  celebrated  in  song  and 
story  because  of  the  brave  fight  they  made  against  what 
seemed  to  be  overwhelming  odds.     At  first  the  govern- 
ments  condemned   the   insurrection — even    the    English 
opposed  it,  because  the  struggle  compromised  the  existence 
of  Turkey,  whose  preservation  seemed  necessary  to  the 
security  of  the  British  Empire  in  India.     "British  liber- 
alism," said  Chateaubriand,  "wore  the  liberty  cap  at  Mex- 
ico and  the  turban  at  Athens."    As  for  the  Holy  Alliance, 
it  saw  in  this  insurrection  only  a  revolt,  and  by  a  strange 
application  of  the  doctrine  of  the  divine  right  it  pretended 
that  its  principle  of  legitimacy  obliged  them  to  protect  the 
throne  of  the  chief  of  the  Mohammedans.     "Do  not  say 
Greeks,"  said  Czar  Nicholas  to  Wellington  when  the  latter 
spoke  to  him  of  the  sympathy  of  the  English  masses  for 
the  patriots.       "Do  not  say  Greeks,  but  rather  'rebels 
against  the  Sublime  Porte.'    I  would  no  more  protect  their 
revolt,  than  I  wish  to  see  the  Porte  protect  a  rebellion 
among  my  own  subjects"  (1826). 

A  few  months  later,  it  is    true,  this    language  was 

a8i 


282  MODERN  EUROPE 

replaced  by  contrary  acts.  Opinion  in  favor  of  the 
Greeks  became  irresistible  even  to  the  reactionary  govern- 
ments. All  civilized  Europe  supported  her  cause,  heroic- 
ally sustained  for  independence  and  national  religion. 
Sympathy  was  excited  even  among  conservatives  by  the 
magical  name  of  Greece,  and  by  this  struggle  of  Chris- 
tians against  Mussulmans.  Poetry  came  to  the  aid  of  the 
insurgents.  Lord  Byron,  who  joined  them  in  1823,  gave 
them  his  fortune  and  his  life.  Politics  allowed  them  the 
right  of  existence.  Canning  easily  led  England  to  their 
aid  when  he  saw  Italy  yielding  to  Austrian  influence,  Spain 
returning  to  friendship  with  France,  the  East  excited  by 
the  intrigues  of  Russia  and  threatened  by  its  arms,  and 
the  Northern  powers  approaching  the  banks  of  the  Medit- 
erranean where  began  a  recrudescence  of  trade.  England 
had  in  that  sea  many  formidable  fortresses — Gibraltar, 
Malta,  and  the  Ionian  Isles,  but  these  were  fortresses, 
not  provinces.  She  did  not  wish  to  let  the  Czar  domi- 
nate Constantinople  as  the  Austrians  ruled  Naples,  Rome 
and  Milan,  and  the  Bourbons  at  Madrid.  To  prevent 
armed  intervention  by  the  Russians  the  British  minister 
attempted  to  end  the  war  himself  by  making  both  parti-es 
accept  his  mediation.  But  the  Sultan  smiled  and  said  that 
he  could  not  think  of  it.  For  in  1825  the  Turks  had  for 
their  general  Ibrahim  Pasha,  son  of  Mehemet  AH,  Pasha 
of  Egypt,  and  he  succeeded  in  taking  Tripoli tza,  the  capital 
of  the  Morea,  and  also  Missolonghi  after  a  brave  defense 
by  the  Greeks.  Lord  Cochrane  helped  the  Greeks  to 
organize  their  fleet,  which  fought  with  skill.  The  strug- 
gle was  carried  on  with  the  utmost  fierceness,  the  Greeks 
resisting  Turkish  tyranny  every  bit  as  bravely  as  did  their 
ancestors  at  Marathon  and  Thermopylae.  The  Turks, 
under  their  Egyptian  general,  killed  all  Christians.  Chios 
was  laid  waste  and  20,000  Greeks  murdered  in  that  island 


PROGRESS  OF  LIBERAL  IDEAS  283 

alone.  It  became  apparent  that  the  revolt  of  the  Greeks 
would  be  suppressed  sooner  or  later,  a.f  ter  the  slaughter  of 
all  the  -Greek  Christians. 

Then  the  powers  decided  to  intervene,  being  led  to 
that  action  .by  Canning1  who,  aside  from  diplomatic  rea- 
sons, could  not  .resist  the  power  of  public  opinion  in  Eng- 
land. The  Czar  agreed  to  help,  Nicholas  I  having  suc- 
ceeded Alexander.  France,  as  the  protectress  of 
Roman  Catholics  in  the  Levant,  gave  her  aid,  but  Austria 
and  Prussia  remained  on  the  side  of  divine  right.  The 
Turkish  fleet  was  destroyed  by  the  allied  squadrons  at 
Navarino  in  October,  1827,  and  in  1829  the  independence 
of  Greece  was  acknowledged  by  Turkey,  after  Czar  Nicho- 
las had  invaded  the  Danubian  provinces,  crossed  the  Bal- 
kans and  descended  upon  Constantinople.  The  Czar  also 
forced  the  Sultan  to  grant  Christian  governors  to  Servia, 
Moldavia,  and  Wallachia,  the  leading  provinces  of  the 
Balkans.  The  powers  met  at  London  and  chose  Otho,  a 
Bavarian  Prince,  as  King  (1832). 

He  ruled  as  tyrannically  as  the  Sultan  could  have  done 
until  1843  when  he  was  forced  to  grant  a  Constitution, 
but  even  then  the  people  were  dissatisfied  and  forced  him 
to  abdicate  in  1862.  Prince  George  of  Denmark  suc- 
ceeded to  the  throne  in  March,  1863,  and  under  him  Greece 
became  more  democratic,  the  country  being  ruled  by  Par- 
liament. The  Ionian  Isles  were  resigned  by  England 
and  annexed  to  Greece  in  1864.  In  1881  the  Sultan  was 
forced  to  give  Thessaly  to  Greece.  Greece  has  always 
stood  for  freedom  and  in  1897  waged  a  heroic  war  against 
Turkey  for  the  independence  of  Crete,  and  though  she 
lost  the  war,  Crete  has  been  given  the  crown  Prince  of 
Greece  as  governor  (1898)  and  all  of  the  reforms 
demanded  have  been  granted. 

The  success  of  Greece  in  achieving  her  independence 


284  MODERN  EUROPE 

had  a  powerful  effect  on  the  rest  of  Europe,  awakening 
a  new  spirit  of  freedom  among  the  peoples.  The  first  and 
most  important  effect  was  on  France,  where  it  led  to  the 
revolution  of  July,  1830.  The  condition  of  France  after 
the  overthrow  of  Napoleon  was  miserable  beyond  any- 
thing which  the  experience  of  modern  Europe  presented. 
Although  the  defeat  of  Waterloo  visibly  closed  the  war 
and  left  France  without  means  of  further  resistance,  the 
armies  of  the  allies  continued  their  advance,  and  com- 
bined to  humiliate  the  unhappy  people  from  whose  merci- 
less hand  they  had  endured  injuries  so  deep.  A  foreign 
army  of  150,000  men  commanded  by  Wellington  was  for 
five  years  to  maintain  order  and  preserve  the  stability,  if 
not  the  dignity  of  the  restored  dynasty;  France  bearing 
the  heavy  cost  of  this  occupation.  Taxation  could  not 
be  collected,  for  the  exactions  of  the  foreigners  left  to  the 
people  nothing  beyond  the  barest  subsistence.  The  mis- 
eries of  the  fallen  nation  were  deep,  abject,  unutterable. 
Yet  France,  with  that  wonderful  power  of  recovery  which 
has  always  been  the  marvel  of  the  world,  in  three  years 
became  fairly  prosperous,  increasing  her  trade.  Still  the 
French  could  not  forget  the  fact  that  the  presence  of  the 
Bourbons  on  the  throne  was  a  symbol  of  humiliation  and 
disgrace.  Louis  XVIII  governed  according  to  a  Consti- 
tution, granted  in  1814,  of  which  the  chief  provisions 
were,  that  there  should  be  two  representative  bodies,  a 
Senate  and  a  Chamber  of  Deputies;  that  the  King's  min- 
isters should  be  responsible  to  the  Chambers;  that  per- 
sonal property  and  personal  freedom  should  be  secured  to 
all;  that  all  civil  and  military  posts  should  be  open  to  all 
French  citizens.  Reactionary  views  and  attempts,  held 
and  made  by  those  who  surrounded  a  weak,  well-meaning 
sovereign,  caused  great  discontent  in  France,  and  secret 
societies  were  formed.  Even  during  his  reign  the  mob 


PROGRESS  OF  LIBERAL  IDEAS  285 

of  Paris,  disapproving  of  certain  government  measures, 
waged  incessant  war  with  the  troops.  In  the  provinces 
there  occurred  insurrections  which  were  quenched  in 
bloodshed,  greatly  more  copious  than  their  importance 
seemed  to  warrant. 

Louis  XVIII  died  in  1824,  and  was  succeeded  by  his 
brother  Charles  X,  who  had  always  headed  the  party  of 
despotism.  The  new  King  showed  great  favor  to  the 
Jesuits  and  the  clergy,  and  to  supporters  of  the  old 
regime,  and  issued  an  ordonnance,  or  decree,  dissolving 
the  National  Guard  at  Paris.  A  crisis  came  soon  after 
the  Prince  de  Polignac,  a  reactionist,  obtained  power  as 
chief  Minister  in  1829.  He  persuaded  the  King  that  the 
people  were  contented  and  that  the  discontent  existed 
only  in  the  columns  of  the  newspapers.  Charles, 
remembering  how,  as  it  had  seemed  to  him,  concession 
after  concession  had  ruined  his  brother  and  led  him  to 
the  scaffold,  determined  that  no  similar  weakness  should 
endanger  his  restored  throne.  He  made  himself  dic- 
tator, and  in  July  30  prepared  ordonnances  or  decrees, 
which  dissolved  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  before  it  had 
even  met;  which  modified  the  electoral  law  and 
suspended  the  liberty  of  the  press.  The  people  of  Paris 
rushed  to  arms,  and  in  and  after  the  glorious  Three  Days 
of  July  (27th-2Qth)  defeated  the  troops,  dethroned  the 
King,  expelled  the  Bourbon  line,  reorganized  the 
National  Guards  throughout  France,  and  set  up,  as  a 
constitutional  sovereign,  the  Duke  of  Orleans  (formerly 
the  Due  de  Chartres,  a  son  of  Philippe  Egalite  of  the 
Revolution),  who  took  the  title  of  Louis  Philippe  I, 
King  of  the  French.  Freedom  was  now  restored,  and 
the  new  ruler  started  on  his  career  in  high  favor  with 
the  bourgeoisie  or  middle  classes,  who  called  him  the 
"Citizen-King." 


286  MODERN  EUROPE 

France  may  be  said  to  have  been  the  leader  in  the 
fight  for  liberty  during  this  period;  and  so  the  news  of 
the  Revolution  of  July  aroused'  lovers  of  liberty  every- 
where. First  to  feel  its  effects  were  the  Belgians.  Bel- 
gium had  been  given  to  Holland  by  the  Congress  of 
Vienna  without  pretense  o*f  consulting  the  Belgians  in 
the  matter.  The  idea  was  to  make  a  state  on  France's 
border  that  would  be  strong  enough  to  prevent  French 
aggression  and  would  aid  England.  It  would  prevent 
a  repetition  of  the  old  wars  in  Flanders  that  had  so'  often 
disturbed  the  peace  of  Europe.  But  the  union  of  the 
Austrian  Netherlands  with  Holland  by  the  Congress  of 
Vienna  soon  proved  to  be  a  mistaken  policy.  The 
Southern  Netherlands  formed  an  agricultural'  and  manu- 
facturing country,  and  most  of  the  people  were  Roman 
Catholics.  Holland  was  commercial  and  maritime,,  and 
most  of  her  people  were  Lutherans  in  religion.  In  the 
Parliament  three  different  languages  were  spoken, 
Dutch,  German,  and  French,  and:  the  members  could 
not  understand  each  other  readily  in  debate.  Thins 
there  was  a  divergence  of  material  and  religious  inter- 
ests, along  with  practical  and  administrative  difficulties, 
and  the  people  of  the  South  desired  separation.  The 
use  of  the  French,  language  in  the  schools  was  pro- 
hibited, and  writers  and  journalists  were  thrown  into 
prison  for  opposing  the  wishes  of  the  Hollander  King. 
Efforts  were  made  to  secure  reforms  from  King  Wil- 
liam by  peaceful  means,  such  as  the  sending  of  petitions 
to  the  King.  But  these  failing,  the  revolution  of  July 
in  Paris  showed  the  way  to  gain  freedom.  In  August, 
1830,  a  few  days  after  Charles  X  had  been  deposed  at 
Paris,  a  revolt  broke  out.  The  volunteers,  of  Liege, 
Mons,  and  Tournay  were  saluted  by  the  Flemish  insur- 
gents as  "Belgians,"  according  to  the  ancient  name,  of 


PROGRESS  OF  LIBERAL  IDEAS  287 

Caesar's  day,  and  this  was  taken  as  the  patriotic  desig- 
nation of  the  people  in  all  the  southern  provinces.  At 
a  congress  of  the  powers  assembled  in  London,  it  was 
decided  to  support  the  separation.  An  incident  of  the 
struggle  was  the  taking  of  the  citadel  of  Antwerp,  for 
the  Belgians,  from  the  Dutch  troops,  by  a  French  force 
under  Marshal  Gerard,  a  hero  of  Austerlitz.  The  place 
was  forced  to  surrender  by  the  fearful  effect  of  a  vertical 
shell-fire  from  enormous  mortars,  which  made  the 
interior  a  mere  shambles  for  the  men  holding  it.  The 
Crown  of  the  new  country  was  given  to  Leopold  of 
Saxe-Coburg,  formerly  husband  of  the  Princess  Char- 
lotte, of  England,  and  he  reigned  over  Belgium  for  thirty- 
four  years  of  prosperity  and  progress,  during  which  the 
Belgians  became  a  united  and  patriotic  community.  Arts, 
manufactures,  and  commerce  have  greatly  flourished,  and 
Europe  does  not  contain  a  Nation  more  esteemed  and 
respected  by  her  fellows.  At  the  French  Revolution  of 
1848  the  wise  Leopold  strengthened  his  position  and 
outwitted  the  Republican  element  by  declaring  his  will- 
ingness to  resign  the  Crown  if  his  subjects  desired  it. 
He  was  succeeded  in  1865  by  his  son  Leopold  II,  who 
has  ruled  in  his  father's  prudent  and  constitutional  way. 
In  1893  electoral  reforms  increased  the  nttmber  of  voters 
from  140,000  to  1,350,000. 

Holland  has  also  prospered  since  the  separation; 
under  the  rule  of  William  II,  who  died  in  1849,  William 
III,  who  reigned  until  1890,  and  the  girl  Queen,  Wilhel- 
mina,  who,  coming  to  the  throne  in  1890  at  the  age  of 
ten,  on  August  31,  1898,  became  Queen  in  reality  as  well 
as  in  name.  She  said  then  that  she  hoped  Holland 
would  be  great  in  all  things  that  a  small  state  may 
become  truly  great,  and  that  ambition  seems  to  be  ful- 
filled. Revisions  of  the  constitution  in  1848  and  1887 


288  MODERN  EUROPE 

have  gradually  increased  the  rights  of  the  people,  and 
in  1896  a  law  granted  the  right  to  vote  to  all  Dutchmen 
over  twenty-five  years  of  age. 

Switzerland  in  1815  had  been  constrained  to  obey 
the  Holy  Alliance.  Her  principal  industry  was  the  hir- 
ing of  soldiers  to  Rome,  Naples,  Spain,  France,  and  Hol- 
land. Until  1830  she  was  therefore  deferential  to  the 
powers.  On  the  demand  of  foreign  Ministers  she  con- 
strained the  freedom  of  the  press  and  restricted  the  right 
of  asylum  which  was  sought  by  refugees  of  all  countries 
in  her  territory.  On  the  news  that  France  had  escaped 
the  political  reaction  nearly  all  the  cantons  demanded 
freer  institutions,  but  only  by  legal  means  and  the  pres- 
sure of  public  opinion.  Austria  having  massed  troops 
in  the  Vorarlberg  and  the  Tyrol  to  intimidate  the  Lib- 
erals, the  Diet  decreed  a  levy  of  60,000  men  and  100,000 
armed  themselves.  The  sovereigns,  menaced  by  the 
Belgian  Revolution,  and  by  the  ever  increasing  agita- 
tion in  Italy  and  Germany,  hastened  to  send  assurances 
of  peace.  Left  to  themselves  the  aristocratic  govern- 
ments of  Switzerland  crumbled  to  pieces.  The  Patri- 
cians lost  their  political  immunity  and  Switzerland 
brought  about  a  revolution  without  shedding  a  drop  of 
blood.  Later  there  were  some  disturbances  and  violent 
deaths  at  Neuchatel,  whose  inhabitants  rose  against  the 
King  of  Prussia,  their  Sovereign,  and  at  Basle,  where  the 
burghers  of  the  city  attempted  to  preserve  some  privi- 
leges to  the  detriment  of  the  rural  communes.  The 
Swiss  Government  was  made  a  federation  and  since,  by 
the  establishment  of  the  initiative  and  referendum,  the 
power  of  originating,  accepting,  and  rejecting  legislation 
has  been  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  people. 

Denmark  had  not  even  these  slight  disturbances. 
The  King  of  his  own  accord  instituted  four  provincial 


PROGRESS  OF  LIBERAL  IDEAS  289 

assemblies  for  the  Island,  Jutland,  Schleswig,  and  Hoi- 
stein  (1831).  Later,  in  1849,  ne  gave  to  the  whole 
Kingdom  a  general  diet.  Sweden  was  still  more 
patient.  Laboring  since  1830  with  liberal  ideas,  she 
waited  until  1840  to  reconstruct  her  Government,  with 
two  elective  chambers,  Ministerial  responsibility,  and 
abolition  of  hereditary  rights  of  the  nobles,  although 
maintaining  the  distinctions  of  orders. 

Of  the  same  nature  were  the  peaceful  reforms 
affected  in  Great  Britain. 

England  had  given  Europe  the  first  example  of  a 
free  Government,  but  the  parliamentary  reforms  of  Pitt 
(1782),  Catholic  Emancipation  (1780-1804),  and  other 
measures,  were  checked  by  the  excesses  of  the  French 
Revolution,  and  the  wars  provoked  by  it.  The  progress 
of  reform  was  retarded  for  nearly  half  a  century.  But 
after  the  fall  of  Napoleon,  and  the  peace  which  ensued, 
these  measures  were  slowly  resumed.  Canning  allied 
himself  with  the  Whigs  in  their  demand  for  political 
reforms,  whilst  Huskisson  commenced  economic  re- 
forms. The  Duke  of  Wellington,  the  victor  of  Water- 
loo, obstinately  defended  the  old  Constitution  of  Eng- 
land, but  after  his  appointment  as  Prime  Minister,  in 
1828,  he  was  forced  to  yield  to  the  movement  started  by 
Canning,  which  the  premature  death  of  the  generous 
Minister  had  failed  to  arrest.  He  accepted  the  repeal 
of  the  Test  Act,  May  9,  1828,  which  had  prevented  Non- 
conformist Protestants  from  entering  the  municipal  cor- 
porations or  the  magistracy.  The  serious  question  of 
Catholic  Emancipation  was  next  solved.  Toleration 
was  triumphing  in  Europe,  and  England  could  not 
retain,  in  the  Nineteenth  Century,  the  severe  laws  that 
had  been  passed  in  the  Seventeenth  Century,  particularly 
since  a  large  part  of  the  United  Kingdom — Ireland — 

Vot,.  2  —  19 


290  MODERN  EUROPE 

Avas  still  Roman  Catholic,  and  a  powerful  agitator, 
O'Connell,  was  stirring  up  the  people.  Robert  Peel, 
member  of  a  Tory  Cabinet,  accepted  the  Liberal  de- 
mand; thanks  to  his  efforts,  the  Ministry  agreed  to  pass 
the  Emancipation  bill,  and  persuaded  the  King  and  the 
Lords  to  accept  it.  The  Commons  passed  it  on  March 
30,  1829 — an  important  act,  which  ended  a  great  injus- 
tice by  granting  the  rights  of  citizenship  to  Roman 
Catholics. 

The  July  Revolution  in  France  led  to  the  fall  of  the 
Tories  and  the  triumph  of  the  Whigs.  The  Whig 
leader,  Lord  Grey,  formed  a  Ministry,  which  included 
Lords  Holland,  Althorp,  John  Russell,  and  the  cele- 
brated Brougham.  On  March  i,  1831,  the  new  Cabinet 
laid  the  reform  bill  before  the  House  of  Commons. 

In  the  Middle  Ages  the  deputies  of  the  towns  and 
boroughs  assembled  with  the  knights  of  the  counties, 
who  represented  the  less  wealthy  portion  of  the  aris- 
tocracy. But  the  Kings  had  not  granted  the  right  of 
electing  deputies  to  every  city,  and  as  the  time  added  to 
the  importance  of  many  of  them,  the  inequity  became 
more  striking.  Some  formerly  obscure  towns  had 
become  the  centers  of  the  great  industrial  movement, 
but  were  still  unrepresented  in  Parliament;  others  fallen 
from  their  greatness  had  retained  this  privilege.  A  few 
hovels,  the  ruins  of  ancient  boroughs,  sent  members  to 
Parliament,  whilst  Manchester  had  no  representative 
there.  The  right  of  election  had  thus  passed  into  the 
hands  of  the  poor  inhabitants  of  the  old  boroughs,  who 
sold  their  votes  freely;  or  into  the  power  of  a  wealthy 
landowner,  who,  thanks  to  a  rotten  borough  situated  on 
his  estate,  could  either  give  the  seat  to  any  one  he 
pleased  or  keep  it  himself.  The  bill  of  March  I,  1831, 
bore  the  character  which  distinguishes  all  English  re- 


PROGRESS  OF  LIBERAL  IDEAS  291 

forms,  it  modified  the  system  of  election  without 
destroying  it:  A  property  qualification,  £50  in  the 
towns,  £100  in  the  counties,  became  the  basis  of  the  fran- 
chise. Fifty-six  rotten  boroughs  lost  their  privileges; 
thirty-one  others,  less  utterly  fallen,  were  only  allowed 
to  send  one  member  to  Parliament.  Liverpool,  Man- 
chester, and  a  few  important  cities  obtained  a  representa- 
tive in  the  House  of  Commons.  London  and  some  new 
counties  nominated  a  few  extra  members.  By  lowering 
the  franchise  the  bill  extended  the  right  of  election  to  a 
larger  number  of  citizens  than  the  French  laws  at  the 
same  date.  The  Tories  struggled  for  a  whole  year  to 
prevent  it  from  passing.  The  Ministers  appealed  to  the 
country,  Parliament  was  dissolved,  the  elections  were  favor- 
able to  the  Whigs,  and  the  new  House  adopted  the  reform 
bill.  The  Tories  then  rejected  it  in  the  House  of  Lords; 
the  Whigs  obtained  permission  from  the  King  to  create 
a  sufficient  number  of  new  Peers  to  change  the  majority, 
and  after  some  sharp  debates,  which  aroused  the  indig- 
nation of  the  populace,  the  Whigs  forced  the  Upper 
House  to  pass  the  reform  bill  (June  4,  1832). 

Two  years  after  the  Parliamentary  Reform  Bill,  Eng- 
land abolished  Negro  slavery  throughout  her  Colonies. 
Lord  Melbourne,  the  Whig  leader,  who  had  succeeded 
Lord  Grey,  had  the  honor  of  passing  the  Negro  Emanci- 
pation Bill  (August  28,  1833). 

Another  and  equally  important  reform  distinguished 
Lord  Melbourne's  administration,  the  settlement  of  the 
poor  laws.  Pauperism  is  one  of  wealthy  England's  open 
sores.  In  the  Sixteenth  Century  cruel  laws  against  beg- 
gars and  vagabonds  were  passed  with  the  hope  of  check- 
ing it.  In  the  commencement  of  the  Seventeenth  Cen- 
tury Elizabeth  published  laws  which  made  the  parishes 
responsible  for  the  maintenance  of  the  poor,  and  estab- 


292  MODERN  EUROPE 

lished  a  poor-rate  for  their  relief.  This  assistance  fre- 
quently rendered  the  pauper's  lot  preferable  to  that  of 
the  laborer,  and  it  thus  became1  an  encouragement  to 
idleness.  A  new  law,  passed  on  April  14,  1834,  retained 
the  poor-rate,  but  regulated  the  collection  of  it,  and 
confined  its  distribution  to  local  councils  (boards  of 
guardians).  The  administration  of  the  poor  laws  was 
directed  and  controlled  by  three  superior  officials.  Out- 
door relief  was  suppressed  almost  entirely;  paupers  un- 
able to  work  were  received,  and  capable  paupers  were 
compelled  to  work,  in  the  workhouses. 

In  the  South,  where  passions  are  ardent,  there  were 
armed  insurrections  and  revolutions.  At  Madrid  Fer- 
dinand VII  was  a  Prince  that  satisfied  the  absolutists. 
He  had  from  the  first  refused  to' recognize  the  new  King 
of  France.  But  during  the  pregnancy  of  the  young 
Queen,  Maria  Christina,  whom  he  had  married  in 
December,  1829,  he  exhumed  a  secret  declaration  by 
which  Charles  IV  had  in  1789  revoked  the  law  of  prag- 
matic sanction  of  Philip  V,  which  forbade  the  succession 
of  women  in  place  of  heirs  male  to*  the  throne.  This 
declaration  was  a  return  to-  the  ancient  law  of  suc- 
cession, which  had  formed  the  greatness  of  Spain  by  the 
union  of  Aragon  and  Castile  under  Isabella,*  the  Cath- 
olic, and  which  had  given  the  crown  to  Charles  V.  The 
King  besides  had  no  scruples  at  dispossessing  his 
brother,  Don  Carlos,  who  had  twice  tried  to  dethrone 
him.  Maria  Christina  having  given  birth  to  a  daughter, 
Isabella,  this  infant  became  Queen  on  the  death  of  Fer- 
dinand (September,  1833),  under  the  guardianship  of 
her  mother.  The  "apostolics,"  forgetful  of  their 
National  traditions  and  faithless  to  the  divine  right  of 
Kings,  took  part  with  Don  Carlos,  who,  sword  in  hand, 

*See  Volume  "Famous  Women  of  the  World." 


PROGRESS  OF  LIBERAL  IDEAS  293 

laid  claim  to  the  throne.  The  result  was  that  the 
Queen,  to  save  the  crown  of  her  daughter,  was  forced 
to  seek  the  support  of  the  Constitutional  party.  Thus 
a  family  quarrel  restored  the  Spanish  Government  to 
the  Liberal  party.  Yet  a  civil  war  of  seven  years  fol- 
lowed in  the  peninsula.  The  leading  powers  of  Europe 
acknowledged  the  infant  Queen  and  her  cause  was  main- 
tained by  the  central  and  southern  provinces  of  Spain. 
The  strength  of  the  Carlists  lay  in  the  north,  especially 
in  the  Basque  provinces  and  in  the  skill  and  daring  of 
their  famous  leaders,  Zumalacareguy  and  Cabrera.  Vol- 
unteers from  England  and  France  helped  the  cause  of 
Isabella,  whose  chief  Generals  were  Espatero  and  the 
Irishman,  O'Donnell.  The  Carlists  were  at  last  sub- 
dued in  1840. 

During  the  Peninsular  War,  Portuguese  troops 
fought  well  in  conjunction  with  the  English  forces 
under  Wellington,  and  the  Nation  looked  for  renewed 
prosperity,  when  complete  peace  was  restored  to 
Europe  on  the  downfall  of  Napoleon.  These  hopes 
were  for  a  time  disappointed.  In  1815,  indeed,  the 
Inquisition  was  abolished,  and  the  Jesuits  were  expelled; 
but  the  sovereign  (John  VI)  and  the  court  were  in 
Brazil,  and  much  public  discontent  existed  at  what  was 
virtually  making  a  European  Nation  a  dependency  of 
a  South  American  throne.  Political  freedom  was 
eagerly  desired,  and  in  1820  a  revolution  was  peacefully 
carried  out  in  favor  of  constitutional  government.  The 
King  then  returned  from  Brazil,  under  an  oath  to  ob- 
serve the  new  Constitution  adopted.  As  in  Spain,  much 
evil  was  caused  in  Portugal  by  the  efforts  of  a  despotic 
party  at  court.  The  Queen,  a  Spanish  Princess,  and  her 
son,  Dom  Miguel,  caused  a  counter-revolution  in  1823, 
and  the  Cortes  dissolved  itself:  with  a  solemn  protest 


294  MODERN  EUROPE 

against  the  new  tyranny.  Brazil  now  had  became  inde- 
pendent, and  John  VI,  as  King  of  Portugal  alone,  died 
in  1826.  The  throne  passed  to  his  son,  Dom  Pedro, 
already  Emperor  of  Brazil;  but  he  at  once  abdicated 
the  Portuguese  sovereignty  in  favor  of  his  daughter, 
Maria  da  Gloria,  on  condition  of  her  marrying  his 
brother  (her  uncle),  Dom  Miguel,  who  was  charged 
with  the  government  as  Regent.  The  despotic  party 
in  Portugal  claimed  the  throne  for  Dom  Miguel  as  an 
absolute  monarch,  and  he  became  King  in  1828.  In 
1831,  Dom  Pedro  resigned  the  crown  of  Brazil,  returned 
to  Europe,  and,  with  the  aid  of  English  partisans,  over- 
threw Dom  Miguel,  restoring  the  crown  to  Maria  in 
1833.  In  1836  constitutional  government  was  restored, 
and  Maria  reigned  peacefully,  with  the  help  of  her  hus- 
band, Ferdinand  of  Saxe-Coburg,  brother  of  Albert, 
Prince-Consort  of  England,  till  her  death  in  1853. 
Her  son  and  successor,  Pedro  V,  ruled  as  a  purely  con- 
stitutional Sovereign  till  his  death,  in  1861,  when  King, 
Louis  I,  came  to  the  throne.  Under  his  rule,  much  im- 
provement took  place  in  financial  management;  monop- 
olies were  abolished,  and  railways  largely  constructed. 
His  wise  policies  have  been  continued  by  his  son,  Carlos 
I,  who  came  to  the  throne  in  1889. 

Thus  Northern  Europe  and  all  of  the  West  took  part 
in  the  movement  begun  by  the  fall  of  Charles  X,  and  the 
return  to  what  there  was  of  wisdom  in  the  ideas  of  1 789. 
Other  countries  would  have  wished  to  follow  this 
example,  but  they  found  themselves  restrained  by  cords 
too  strong  to  be  broken.  The  consequences  of  the  revo- 
lution of  July  did  not  make  themselves  felt,  at  least 
ostensibly,  in  the  two  great  German  monarchies. 
Austria's  and  Prussia's  rulers  had  at  their  backs  strong 
armies,  the  Church,  and  the  support  of  the  numerous 


PROGRESS  OF  LIBERAL  IDEAS  295 

nobility,  with  its  device,  "God  and  the  King-,"  together 
with  the  political  reserve  of  a  flourishing  middle  class. 
It  was  not  the  same  in  the  smaller  states.  Brunswick, 
the  two  Hesses,  Saxony,  Hanover,  Oldenberg,  and 
Bavaria  were  agitated  by  movements  which  dethroned 
several  Princes,  and  obliged  others  to  concede  charters 
and  reforms.  Italian  patriots  were  still  terrorized  by 
their  experience  of  a  decade  before,  when  the  Austrian 
armies  had  massacred  and  imprisoned  the  patriots. 
Metternich  had  kept  close  watch  upon  the  small  States, 
and  the  Secret  Society  of  the  Carbonari,  which  dreamed 
of  the  unity  of  Italy,  agitated  in  vain.  Only  in  isolated 
regions,  as  in  the  States  of  the  Church  (in  1830)  did  the 
people  rise  against  their  masters,  and  these  petty  insur- 
rections were  quickly  suppressed  by  the  force  of  Aus- 
trian arms. 

In  Eastern  Europe  a  most  formidable  insurrection 
began.  Poland,  which  had  been  given  to  Russia  by  the 
Congress  of  Vienna,  rose  as  one  man.  It  had  been  made 
a  Constitutional  Kingdom,  attached  to  Russia,  with  an 
administration  of  its  own;  its  name  and  language  were 
preserved,  and  a  charter  was  granted  containing  a  large 
measure  of  freedom  for  the  people.  The  Constitution, 
however,  was  not  carried  out.  The  rude,  energetic,  and 
cruel  Grand  Duke  Constantino,  brother  of  the  Emperor 
Alexander,  was  Military  Governor.  The  greatest  cru- 
elty, extortion,  and  peculation  were  practiced  by  the 
Russian  officials,  and  the  accession  of  Nicholas  as  Czar 
(1825),  a  stern  wielder  of  despotic  authority,  did  not 
mend  matters.  The  Poles  were  driven  to  madness,  and 
in  November,  1830,  an  insurrection  began  with  the 
students  of  the  Military  School  at  Warsaw.  The 
students  of  the  University  joined  them,  the  citizens  and 
Polish  troops  followed,  the  arsenal  was  seized,  with  an 


296  MODERN  EUROPE 

ample  supply  of  arms,  the  Russians  were  driven  from 
Warsaw,  and  in  January,  1831,  the  throne  of  Poland 
was  declared  to  be  vacant,  and  a  government  was  organ- 
ized under  Adam  Czartoryski.  In  the  battles  which 
ensued  the  Poles  fought  with  great  courage,  but  the 
Russian  troops  were  in  overwhelming  numbers,  and 
Warsaw  surrendered  to  General  Paskievitch  in  Septem- 
ber, 1831.  The  Constitution  of  1815  was  then  formally 
abolished,  the  Polish  army  disbanded,  the  people  dis- 
armed, a  strong  citadel  built  in  Warsaw,  and  every  effort 
made  to  Russianize  the  country.  The  unhappy  Poles 
were  treated  with  the  utmost  cruelty,  and  the  Austrian 
and  Prussian  Governments  drove  back  over  the  frontier 
the  fugitives  who  had  crossed  into  their  territories. 
Numbers  of  victims  were  executed,  others  were  flogged 
to  death  or  sent  to  Siberia;  the  language  of  Poland 
was  officially  suppressed,  and  Russian  officials  were  put 
into  all  public  employments. 

A  last  effort  was  made  by  Poland  for  freedom  in 
January,  1863,  which  was  carried  on  under  Langiewicz, 
who  gained  some  successes,  but  he  was  soon  defeated 
and  killed  in  action.  The  rising,  which  never  'had  any 
chance  against  the  enormous  power  of  Russia,  was  sup- 
pressed in  March,  1864,  after  great  losses  to  the  insur- 
gents in  fighting,  and  by  banishment  to  Siberia.  By 
measures  afterward  adopted  the  name  "Poland"  has 
been  dropped,  and  the  Russian  language  imposed  for 
sole  use  in  schools.  The  murder  of  a  Nation  has  been 
completed,  and  the  people  whose  King,  John  Sobieski, 
delivered  Vienna  from  the  Turks,  vanishes  from  history's 
checkered  and  blood-stained  page. 


REVOLUTIONS    OF    1848 

Early  agitations  followed  the  accession  of  Louis 
Phillippe  to  the  throne  of  France,  but  they  were  quickly 
suppressed,  and  prosperity  followed  during  the  eight- 
een years  of  his  reign.  It  was,  however,  a  prosperity 
of  the  middle  classes — the  bourgeois,  who  ruled  France 
instead  of  the  nobles.  The  middle  class  was  rapidly 
accumulating  wealth,  and  was  satisfied.  But  wages 
were  low,  and  the  working  population  did  not  appear 
to  participate  in  the  prosperity  of  their  employers. 
The  small  owners  of  land — forming,  with  their  families, 
about  one-half  of  the  population — were  so  heavily  bur- 
dened with  taxation  and  debt  that  they  obtained  with 
difficulty  the  means  of  a  scanty  and  precarious  exist- 
ence. In  Paris  trade  combinations  were  formed,  which 
resulted  in  extensive  strikes.  Numerous  arrests  took 
place,  for  by  French  law  it  was  a  criminal  offense  for  a 
number  of  men  simultaneously  to  desist  from  work. 

The  population  of  France  was  then  34,000,000,  and 
the  privilege  of  the  political  franchise  was  invested  exclu- 
sively in  those  who  paid,  in  direct  taxes,  the  sum  of  not 
less  than  $40.  This  class  numbered  little  more  than 
200,000.  It  was  a  class  whose  interests  were  held  to  be 
antagonistic  to  those  of  the  great  mass  of  the  people, 
and  was  not,  therefore,  in  any  sense  representative  of 
those  who  were  excluded  from  political  influence.  The 
chamber  elected  did  not  enjoy  the  confidence  of  the 
people,  and  most  of  the  members  sold  their  support 
to  the  Government  in  exchange  for  places  or  for  direct 
bribes.  Corruption  was  more  widespread  and  more 

297 


298  MODERN  EUROPE 

shameless  than  before  the  first  French  Revolution.  In 
the  scarcely  exaggerated  language  of  Lamartine,  the 
Government  had  "succeeded  in  making  of  a  Nation  of 
citizens  a  vile  band  of  beggars." 

It  was  obvious  that  reform  must  come  through  a 
reform  of  the  law-making  body,  and  it  was  at  first  pro- 
posed merely  to  extend  the  suffrage,  but  Louis  Phil- 
lippe  opposed  that  suggestion.  It  was  a  "malady  of  the 
age,"  he  said,  and  would  soon  pass  away.  But  it  did 
not  pass  away,  and  the  general  discontent  increased. 
In  1847  many  evidences  of  shameful  corruption  came 
to  light.  A  Cabinet  Minister  was  found  guilty  of 
accepting  bribes;  the  Ministry  was  accused  of  having 
sold  peerages,  and  an  arsenal  was  burned  down  to  con- 
ceal the  delinquencies  of  certain  officials.  The  pro- 
visions supplied  to  the  army  and  navy  were  adulterated. 
Crops  failed  in  1845  and  1846,  and  prices  rose  to  famine 
point,  so  that  the  Municipality  of  Paris  borrowed 
$5,000,000  and  expended  it  in  artificially  reducing  the 
price  of  bread.  The  Chief  Minister,  Guizot,  who  had 
come  into  office  in  1847,  always  opposed  reform,  and 
openly  advocated  oppression  and  corruption.  The 
King  denounced  the  reformers  in  1847  in  his  speech 
from  the  throne. 

The  immediate  cause  of  an  outbreak  was  the  attempt 
of  the  Government,  in  February,  1848,  to  prevent  the 
holding  of  a  certain  reform  banquet,  at  which  the  state 
of  affairs  was  to  be  discussed.  The  appearance  of  the 
prohibitory  cards  on  the  walls  of  Paris  was  the  signal  for 
an  insurrection  of  the  Democratic  party  on  February 
22d,  1848.  The  next  day  Guizot  resigned,  but  it  was 
too  late.  Insurrection  had  become  revolution;  the 
National  Guard  sided  with  the  people;  the  King  abdi- 
cated and  fled  to  England;  the  Tuileries  palace  was 


REVOLUTIONS  OF  1848  299 

taken  and  plundered,  and  a  Republic  was  set  up  on  the 
old  basis  of  "liberty,  equality,  and  fraternity."  The 
chief  men  of  the  crisis  were  Lamartine,  Ledru  Rollin, 
Cremieux,  General  Cavaignac,  Louis  Blanc,  and  the 
workman  Albert.  In  June,  1848,  a  terrible  outbreak 
of  the  Red,  or  extreme,  Republicans  caused  three  days' 
desperate  fighting  in  the  streets  of  Paris,  with  the  loss 
of  many  thousands  of  lives,  including  that  of  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Paris,  who  was  sacrificed  in  his  endeavor  to 
mediate  between  the  enraged  combatants. 

Upon  the  reestablishment  of  order,  Louis  Napoleon 
appeared  on  the  scene.  In  1836  this  young  man — son 
of  Louis  Bonaparte,  King  of  Holland,  and  Hortense, 
step-daughter  of  the  great  Emperor — relying  on  the 
attachment  to  the  name  Napoleon,  made  an  adventurous 
attempt  to  get  himself  proclaimed  Emperor  at  Stras- 
burg.  He  failed,  but  in  1840  repeated  the  attempt  at 
Boulogne.  There  he  was  captured  and  condemned  to 
imprisonment  for  life,  but  managed  to  escape.  The 
King,  anxious  as  far  as  possible  to  conciliate  the  senti- 
ment which  surrounded  the  name  of  Napoleon,  had  had 
the  remains  of  the  great  Emperor  brought  from  Saint 
Helena,  and  they  were  solemnly  interred  under  the 
dome  of  Les  Invalides.  Louis  Napoleon  appeared  on 
the  scene  as  soon  as  Louis  Phillippe  had  fallen,  and  to 
the  magic  of  his  uncle's  name  he  owed  his  election  as 
President  of  the  newly  established  Republic,  which  had 
provided  for  a  president  and  an  assembly,  both  elected 
by  universal  suffrage.  Louis  Napoleon  was  chosen 
President  by  a  majority  of  nearly  three  to  one,  and  the 
task  of  carrying  out  the  Constitution  was  intrusted  to 
him.  But  for  three  years  he  endeavored  to  throw  dis- 
credit upon  it,  at  last  destroyed  it  by  a  coup  d'  etat,  and 
on  December  2,  1852,  a  year  later,  was  proclaimed 


300  MODERN  EUROPE 

Emperor,  this  time,  as  before,  by  an  overwhelming 
majority  of  the  plebiscite.  France  once  more  swung 
violently  from  extreme  liberty  to  extreme  submission. 

The  Revolution  of  1848,  like  the  other  revolutions 
in  France,  was  the  signal  for  other  outbreaks,  and  Con- 
tinental thrones  were  again  shaken.  The  smaller  des- 
potisms of  Germany,  smitten  with  fear  by  the  tidings 
of  the  revolution  in  Paris,  yielded  instantly  to  the 
demands  of  their  people.  The  Kings  of  Saxony  and 
Wiirtemberg  made  haste  to*  grant  constitutions.  The 
King  of  Bavaria  was  troubled  at  this  inopportune 
moment  by  an  insurrection,  whose  object  was  to  expel 
the  fascinating  but  unworthy  Lola  Montez.  Encour- 
aged by  the  news  from  Paris,  the  insurgents  widened 
the  scope  of  their  movement,  and  exacted  from  their 
reluctant  King  liberty  of  the  press  and  a  Parliamentary 
Government.  A  crowd  of  less  considerable  Princes 
entered  with  equal  haste  and  equal  reluctance  upon  the 
work  of  erecting  Republican  institutions.  Even  in 
Prussia,  which  had  previously  resisted  the  introduction 
of  reforms,  and  whose  ruler  had  been  a  party  to  the  now 
ineffectual  Holy  Alliance,  the  wave  of  reform  was  felt. 
Frederick  William  IV  announced  numerous  liberal 
measures,  and  indicated  a  purpose  of  shortly  increas- 
ing their  number  and  scope.  But  the  King's  sudden 
liberalism  did  not  command  the  support  of  the  people. 
On  the  day  after  the  royal  proclamation  (March  18, 
1848),  a  bloody  conflict  raged  for  hours  in  the  streets 
of  Berlin  between  the  populace  and  the  troops.  Bar- 
ricades were  erected  within  sight  of  the  palace;  num- 
erous dwellings  were  sacked  and  burned.  Next  day  a 
new  and  more  liberal  Ministry  was  appointed,  and  the 
King's  asseveration  of  his  ardent  desire  to  secure  the  lib- 
erty of  his  people  became  more  emphatic  than  ever. 


REVOLUTIONS  OF  1848  301 

His  majesty  proposed  household  suffrage  as  the  basis 
of  the  new  Constitution,  and  it  was  accepted.  But  not 
even  a  concession  so  extreme  restored  harmony  between 
the  Government  and  the  people.  The  Assembly  fell 
into  debate  regarding  trivial  details  of  the  Constitution. 
They  eliminated  from  the  royal  title  the  words,  "By  the 
Grace  of  God,"  leaving  it  to  be  understood  that  his 
majesty  ruled  merely  by  the  will  of  his  people.  They 
abolished  the  nobility.  Their  profitless  discussions 
paralyzed  commerce  and  roused  the  passions  of  the  pop- 
ulace. Employment  could  not  be  found.  Multitudes 
of  workmen,  idle  and  hungry,  roamed  the  streets  of 
Berlin.  Destructive  riots  were  of  frequent  occurrence, 
but  the  Assembly  continued  its  profitless  debates.  It 
was  then  that  Berlin  was  filled  with  troops  and  the 
Assembly  forcibly  dissolved,  the  President  being  carried 
out  and  deposited  in  the  street.  A  new  Constitution 
was  adopted,  by  which  every  Prussian  who  had  attained 
his  twenty-fourth  year  was  allowed  to  vote.  But  the 
voters  were  ranked  in  three  classes,  according  to  the 
amount  of  taxes  paid.  By  the  method  thus  adopted 
the  small  minority  of  persons  who  are  rich  are  equal 
in  an  election  to  the  vast  majority  of  workingmen  and 
others  who  pay  inconsiderable  amounts.  This  principle 
still  regulates  the  electoral  system  of  Prussia. 

In  Austria  the  revolutionists  of  1848  were  strong 
enough  to  bring  about  the  downfall  of  Prince  Metter- 
nich,  the  man  who  had  done  more  than  anyone  else  tG 
increase  the  power  of  the  reactionaries.  Under  his  rule 
the  Austrian  Government  had  made  no  concessions, 
although  the  desire  for  free  institutions  had  spread  deep 
and  wide  among  the  people.  Discussion  of  politicar 
questions  was  forbidden,  and  every  amelioration,  even 
of  admitted  evils,  was  delayed.  The  cities  were  full 


302  MODERN  EUROPE 

of  secret  societies.  The  Slav  population  claimed  that 
they  were  unfairly  treated.  The  Hungarians  wanted  a 
separate  Kingdom.  The  news  that  France  had  once 
more  conquered  a  tyrant  King  summoned  the  people 
of  Austria  to  battle.  A  few  days  passed  of  increasing 
excitement,  and  then,  on  March  i,  1848,  the  mob  sacked 
the  palace  of  Prince  Metternich,  and  were  driven  away 
by  the  soldiers,  not  without  bloodshed.  A  new  Ministry 
was  appointed,  and  the  Government  announced  con- 
cession after  concession,  including  even  liberty  of  the 
press  and  universal  suffrage.  The  Emperor  fled  from 
Vienna,  and  some  weeks  after  his  flight  an  Assembly 
of  the  States  met  at  Vienna.  The  Emperor  returned 
to  the  quieted  city,  but  in  October  there  was  another 
insurrection  in  Vienna,  while  the  Slavs  in  Bohemia  and 
Silesia  took  up  arms.  Prince  Windischgratz  sup- 
pressed, but  with  extreme  difficulty,  the  Slavonian 
revolt.  Jellachich,  with  70,000,  bombarded  Vienna, 
which  was  not  surrendered  until  the  frightful  slaughter 
of  its  defenders  rendered  further  resistance  impossible. 
The  Emperor,  hopeless  now  of  being  useful  to  his  people 
or  tolerable  to  himself,  abdicated  in  favor  of  his  nephew, 
Franz  Joseph,  then  a  lad  of  eighteen. 

The  Italian  States  and  Hungary  were  still  in  arms. 
A  desire  for  union  and  independence  existed  in  the 
hearts  of  the  people  of  Italy,  and  the  Governments  at 
Naples,  Rome,  and  other  centers  of  tyranny  were  in 
continual  conflict  with  the  secret  political  societies — 
such  as  that  whose  members  were  called  Carbonari — 
that  had  been  formed.  Insurrections  in  Naples,  Sicily, 
and  Sardinia  were  followed  by  the  establishment  of  a 
yet  more  rigorous  despotism  in  1821.  The  secret 
societies  then  became  more  active,  and  great  cruelties 
were  practiced  by  the  Governments  in  Naples,  Sicily, 


REVOLUTIONS  OF  1848  303 

and  Modena  against  suspected  persons,  as  denounced 
by  the  Jesuits  and  the  secret  police.  Less  stringent 
measures  were  adopted  in  the  States  of  the  Church, 
and  the  Austrian  dominions  in  the  North  of  Italy. 
After  the  French  Revolution  of  1830,  risings  of  the 
patriots  in  Modena,  Parma,  and  Bologna  were  put  down 
by  Austrian  troops.  It  was  about  this  time  that 
Giuseppe  Mazzini,  a  native  of  Genoa,  of  high  education 
and  attainments,  formed  the  organization  of  patriots 
called  "Young  Italy,"  and  in  his  journal  (which,  from 
his  headquarters  at  Marseilles,  he  contrived  to  circulate 
in  Italy)  called  for  a  popular  insurrection  and  the  union 
of  all  the  separate  States  into  one  powerful  nationality, 
avowing  its  own  preference  for  a  republican  form  of 
government.  Expelled  in  turn  from  France  and  Switz- 
erland, and  taking  refuge  in  England,  Mazzini  carried 
on  his  work  from  1833  to  1848  in  the  European  press 
and  by  secret  correspondence  with  Italy,  and  in  the 
end  contributed  much  to  the  liberation  of  his  country. 

In  1846  Pius  IX  became  Pope,  and  it  was  believed 
that  an  era  of  reform  had  arrived.  Liberal  measures, 
opposed  by  the  Governments  of  Naples  and  Austria, 
were  adopted  in  the  Papal  States,  Tuscany  and  Sar- 
dinia, and  universal  hatred  was  felt  against  the  abso- 
lutism and  domination  of  Austria.  The  French  Revo- 
lution of  1848  brought  a  crisis.  The  population  of 
Lombardy,  Venetia,  Parma,  and  Mo4ena  took  up  arms 
and  drove  the  Austrian  troops  in  retreat  to  Verona. 
Charles  Albert,  King  of  Sardinia,  then  declared  war 
against  Austria,  and  was  at  first  successful,  but  his  forces 
were  severely  defeated  in  July  by  the  aged  Austrian, 
Field  Marshal  Radetzky,  and  in  March,  1849,  the  fatal 
day  of  Novara,  where  Radetzky  routed  the  Sardinans, 
put  an  end  at  once  to  the  hopes  of  the  Italian  patriots 


304  MODERN  EUROPE 

and  to  the  reign  of  their  champion.  Charles  Albert  of 
Sardinia  resigned  the  throne  in  favor  of  his  son  (the 
late  King  of  Italy),  Victor  Emmanuel,  who  pursued  a 
steady  course  of  liberal  reform  and  development  of  his 
country's  resources.  Lombardy  and  Venetia  were 
again  under  Austrian  rule,  and  a  severe  tyranny  was 
the  result  of  the  attempts  made  at  liberation. 

Meanwhile  the  Pope  had  been  driven  from  Rome, 
and  a  Roman  Republic  had  been  established,  ruled  by 
Mazzini,  the  head  of  "Young  Italy,"  and  the  famous 
Garibaldi,*  the  leader  of  the  volunteer  bands  of  Italian 
patriots.  The  French  Republic,  in  order  to  gain  favor 
with  the  priestly  party  in  France,  sent  an  army  to  the 
Pope's  assistance,  under  General  Oudinot.  After  a 
bloody  and  determined  resistance,  Rome  was  captured 
by  the  French  in  July,  1849,  an(i  the  Pope  returned  and 
resumed  his  power  in  April,  1850,  under  the  protection 
of  French  bayonets,  the  old  absolutism  being  now 
restored. 

In  Sicily  and  Naples  all  attempts  at  revolution  were 
also  crushed,  and  Sardinia  was  the  only  part  of  Italy 
where,  in  1852,  constitutional  government  existed.  The 
secret  societies  resumed  their  operations;  the  arbitrary 
Governments  exercised  martial  law  and  persecuted  the 
Liberal  party;  brigandage  was  rife,  especially  in  Cen- 
tral and  Southern  Italy.  In  Naples,  especially,  the  most 
odious  cruelties  were  exercised  on  political  prisoners, 
guilty  of  nothing  except  their  opinions,  and  were  fully 
exposed  by  Gladstone  in  his  masterly  letters  to  Lord 
Aberdeen,  written  in  1851.  The  ruler  of  the  Kingdom 
of  Naples,  Ferdinand  II  ("King  of  the  Two  Sicilies"), 
was  one  of  the  most  hateful  tyrants  in  history,  and  earned 

*See  volume  "Famous  Warriors." 


REVOLUTIONS  OF  1848  3°5 

for  himself,  as  a  brand  of  lasting  infamy,  the  nickname 
of  "King  Bomba,"  by  bombarding  the  wretched  people 
of  his  capital  from  the  forts  which  commanded  it. 
Great  Britain  and  France  withdrew  their  Ministers  from 
Naples,  to  mark  their  disgust  at  the  doings  of  the  Gov- 
ernment. 

In  the  year  1847  a  movement  for  constitutional 
freedom  had  gained  great  power  in  Hungary,  under  the 
leadership  of  Louis  Kossuth,  Francis  Deak,  and  other 
patriots.  In  1848  the  Hungarians  had  set  up  a  Repub- 
lic, but  their  cause  was  weakened  by  the  jealousy  of  the 
Croatians  and  Transylvanians,  who  even  attacked  the 
Magyars  (Hungarians)  with  armed  force.  In  Decem- 
ber, 1848,  when  matters  had  been  quieted  in  Vienna, 
a  great  Austrian  army  invaded  Hungary,  and  met  with 
a  heroic  resistance  from  the  National  forces  under 
Gorgei,  General  Bern,  and  other  leaders.  The  Hun- 
garians utterly  defeated  the  Austrian  Field  Marshal, 
Prince  Windischgratz,  in  battle  after  battle,  and  drove 
his  forces  from  the  country  (April,  1849).  The  inde- 
pendence of  Hungary  was  now  declared  by  her  Diet, 
and  Kossuth  was  appointed  Governor.  If  the  victorious 
Magyars  had  at  once  marched  on  Vienna,  the  Empire 
must  have  succumbed;  but  time  was  lost  in  capturing 
Buda,  and  meanwhile  the  victory  of  Novara  had  set 
free  a  large  part  of  the  Austrian  army  of  Italy.  The 
Austrian  Government  also  called  in  ihe  help  of  Russia, 
and  in  June,  1849,  the  two  imperial  armies  entered  Hun- 
gary on  all  sides.  General  Haynau  commanded  the 
combined  forces,  but  in  a  desperate  battle  of  several 
days  could  not  beat  the  inferior  Magyar  army,  and  was 
then  defeated  in  an  attack  on  their  intrenched  camp 
near  Komorn.  Numbers,  however,  prevailed  at  last, 

Vol..    2  —  20 


306  MODERN  EUROPE 

and  in  August  the  Hungarian  leader  Gorgei,  sur- 
rendered with  his  whole  force  to  the  Russians.  Bern, 
Kossuth,  Guyon,  and  others  fled  to  other  lands.  The 
Austrian  Government  behaved  with  merciless  cruelty 
to  the  fallen  Hungarians,  intrusting  vengeance  to  the 
infamous  Haynau,  who  brought  to  the  scaffold  some  of 
the  greatest  statesmen  and  soldiers  of  Hungary. 


Humiliated  and  worn  by  the  many  insurrections 
within  the  borders  of  her  conglomerate  Empire,  Austria 
began  to  lose  power  and  influence  in  Europe,  and  gradu- 
ally fell  from  that  high  place  which  once  she  had  held 
as  the  arbiter  of  Europe.  The  chance  then  came  to 
Prussia  to  assert  herself  as  the  leader  of  the  thirty-eight 
German  States  created  by  the  Congress  of  Vienna. 
Prussia's  rise  to  greatness  during-  the  Eighteenth  Cen- 
tury made  her  a  great  military  power.  Though  the 
Napoleonic  wars  had  weakened  her  and  cost  her  thou- 
sands of  her  best  soldiers,  yet  she  showed  remarkable 
recovery  after  her  power  and  independence  had  been 
crushed  by  Napoleon  in  1806.  As  a  consequence  of  the 
overthrow  of  Jena  ( 1806)  Prussia  had  been  dismembered, 
and  Napoleon  believed  that  he  had  secured  her  future 
weakness  by  compelling  her  to  engage  not  to  keep  on 
foot  an  army  of  more  than  42,000  regular  troops  during 
the  next  ten  years.  This  restriction  of  her  army  was 
intended  to  bar  the  recovery  of  Prussia  by  allowing  her 
lost  possessions  time  to  accustom  themselves  to  new 
masters.  The  measure  adopted  by  Napoleon  to  this  end 
proved  to  be  the  means  of  ultimately  making  his  beaten 
and  humiliated  foe  the  greatest  military  power  in 
Europe. 

The  great  statesman,  Baron  Stein,  came  into  power 
in  1807,  and  at  once  began  to  work  out  his  purpose  of 
throwing  off  the  French  yoke,  and  regaining  independ- 
ence for  his  country.  He  sought  to  create  a  middle 
class  of  peasant-proprietors,  and  to  prepare  the  way  for 


3o8  MODERN  EUROPE 

the  conversion  of  an  absolute  monarchy  into  a  repre- 
sentative government.  Serfdom  and  all  feudal  usages 
were  abolished,  and  the  sale  and  transfer  of  land  were 
made  entirely  free.  Local  self-  government  was  granted 
to  the ,  towns,  and  ancient  restrictions  on  trade  were 
swept  away.  The  offices  of  state  were  reformed,  and 
adapted  to  modern  practical  requirements.  While  Stein 
was  the  civil,  the  able  General  Scharnhorst,  a  man 
equally  scientific  and  practical,  wras  the  military  regen- 
erator of  Prussia.  He  formed  a  plan  for  evading  the 
intended  effect  of  the  army  restriction  imposed  by 
Napoleon.  This  plan  consisted  in  a  system  of  short 
service,  by  which  continual  drafts  of  men  entered  the 
army,  and,  after  acquiring  the  necessary  drill,  returned 
to  private  occupations,  leaving  their  places  vacant  for 
others.  In  this  way,  while  the  number  of  men  in  arms 
and  with  the  colors  never  exceeded  the  limit  imposed, 
the  whole  male  population  was  being  trained  to  effective 
service  in  war.  The  operation  was  conducted  so  quietly 
as  to  escape  notice  until  its  effects  came  to  light,  with 
disastrous  result  to  Napoleon,  on  the  great  uprising  of 
Germany  in  1813.  The  Prussian  army  thus  received  a 
new  constitution  and  spirit,  and  acquired  a  truly  national 
feeling.  The  system  of  short  service  was  the  germ  of 
the  famous  Prussian  Landwehr,  or  militia,  so  renowned 
in  the  recent  history  of  Europe.  In  the  midst  of  these 
reforms,  the  jealousy  of  Napoleon  compelled  Baron 
Stein  to  resign  his  post  at  the  end  of  1808,  but  his  work 
was  carried  on  by  Hardenberg.  After  1815  the  policy 
of  reform  was  checked,  for  a  time,  by  the  king,  Frederick 
William  III,  who  joined  the  "Holy  Alliance."  Never- 
theless, compulsory  education  was  made  a  fundamental 
principle  of  the  State  in  1816,  and  religious  toleration 
was  established. 


RIVALRY  OF  AUSTRIA  AND  PRUSSIA     309 

That  the  German  States  were  one  in  sentiment  was 
realized  even  by  the  Congress  of  Vienna.  But  the  old 
system  of  a  combination  of  German  States  under  an 
Emperor  who  was  held  to  represent  the  Caesars  had 
been  dashed  to  pieces  by  Napoleon's  Confederacy  of 
the  Rhine.  The  Congress  of  Vienna,  rinding  Germany 
a  mass  of  incohering  principalities,  ordained  that  the 
thirty-eight  States  should  be  united  in  one  great  con- 
federation under  the  presidency  of  the  Emperor  of  Aus- 
tria, as  the  most  powerful  monarch  among  the  number. 
There  was  constituted  a  Diet,  which  met  at  Frankfort, 
but  was  without  power  except  in  matters  of  the  internal 
peace  of  the  States  and  the  guarding  against  foreign 
attack. 

With  Prussia's  rise  to  greatness,  she  resented  the 
dominance  of  Austria,  claiming  that  the  Eastern 
Empire  contained  more  Slavs  than  Germans,  and 
hence  was  not  German  in  spirit.  Prussia  saw  her  oppor- 
tunity and  took  a  step  toward  German  unity  by  the 
scheme  of  commercial  policy  known  as  the  Zollverein, 
or  Customs  Union.  Each  State  had  imposed  its  own 
levies,  and  in  journeying  along  the  Rhine  alone,  goods 
had  to  pass  twenty-seven  customhouses.  The  removal 
of  these  vexatious  hindrances  to  commercial  intercourse 
must  largely  promote  the  interests  of  Germans  and  gain 
favor  for  the  State  under  whose  auspices  it  was  effected. 
Prussia  organized  the  Commercial  League,  whose  mem- 
bers collect  no  custom  duties  upon  goods  passing  from 
one  State  to  another.  Austria  was  left  out  of  the 
arrangement. 

To  no  man  does  Prussia  owe  her  present  position  in 
the  affairs  of  the  world  more  than  to  Otto  von  Bismarck, 
who  in  1847  entered  the  service  of  the  monarchy.  His 
career,  and  many  of  the  Prussian  internal  forms,  are 


3io  MODERN  EUROPE 

dealt  with  in  the  volume,  "Foreign  Statesmen,"  and  so 
will  not  be  mentioned  here.  In  1861,  when  Frederick 
William  died,  and  his  brother  became  King  William  I, 
Bismarck's  voice  was  potent  with  the  King,  and  he 
became  his  Prime  Minister  almost  immediately,  and 
together  King  and  Minister  labored  for  the  aggrandize- 
ment of  Prussia  and  the  German  States.  In  this  they 
were  aided  by  the  great  strategist,  Count  Von  Moltke. 
(See  volume,  "Famous  Warriors.") 

For  ages  Austria  had  been  supreme  in  Germany,  and 
she  had  been  wont  to  treat  Prussia  with  scant  ceremony 
as  a  manifest  inferior.     But  Prussia — 'Compact,  wisely 
guided,  and  long  in  the  enjoyment  of  peace — increased 
in  power,   while  Austria — burdened  with  distant   and 
dissatisfied  provinces,  wasted  by  costly  wars,  and  frus- 
trated in  her  career  by  injudicious  government — was 
steadily    dwindling.     A    long    diplomatic     strife    was 
maintained   over  trivial    differences    evolved    from   the 
growing  animosity  of  the  two   governments.     But   it 
wras  obvious  that  the  high  dispute  in  the  hands  of  diplo- 
mats was  merely  ripening  for  its  inevitable  solution  by 
the   sword.     Bismarck    had    secured   the    "benevolent 
neutrality"  of  France  and  Russia  in  the  long  foreseen  con- 
flict    The   active   friendship  of  Italy   could  be   safely 
assumed.     Meanwhile,  the  Emperor,  with  his  Minister 
and  the  General,  had  prepared  for  the  long-expected 
struggle  by   a   reform    of   the   army,    involving    great 
expenditure,  and  causing  much  dissension  between  the 
Parliament  and  the  Crown,  or  the  ministry  of  Bismarck, 
who  went  so  far  as  to  deny  the  right  of  the  people  to 
control  the  financial  expenditure  through  their  repre- 
sentatives.    Bismarck    and    the    King    prevailed,    and 
Prussia,  in  the  end,  accepted  the  result  as  justifying  the 


RIVALRY  OF  AUSTRIA  AND  PRUSSIA     311 

arbitrary  means  adopted — a  suspension  of  the  Nation's 
constitutional  right. 

While  the  great  controversy  was  at  some  distance 
from  its  close,  Bismarck  succeeded  in  inducing  Austria 
to  join  him  in  wresting  from  Denmark  the  Duchies  of 
Schleswig-Holstein.  Prussian  and  Austrian  armies 
took  the  field  together  in  1864.  The  Danes  made  a  gal- 
lant resistance  against  overwhelming  force,  and  main- 
tained their  works  at  Diippel  for  three  months,  until 
they  were  stormed  by  the  Prussian  troops.  In  the 
end  Denmark  was  deprived  (Treaty  of  Vienna,  October, 
1864)  of  Schleswig-Holstein,  and  part  of  Jutland.  The 
plunder  was  easily  acquired,  but  grave  difficulties  arose 
in  regard  to  its  distribution.  Bismarck  took  measures 
which  pointed  to  the  absorption  of  all  the  territory  by 
Prussia.  Austria  favored  its  erection  into  an  independ- 
ent State,  under  Prince  Frederick  of  Augustenberg, 
who  might  be  trusted  to  rule  it  according  to  Austrian 
desires.  In  the  sitting  of  the  German  Diet,  June,  1866, 
Austria,  disregarding  a  convention  made  for  joint  occu- 
pation, placed  the  whole  matter  at  the  disposal  of  the 
Bund,  and  then  proceeded  to  convoke  the  States. 
While  inviting  Austria  to  send  troops  into  Schleswig, 
Prussia  marched  her  own  troops  into  Holstein,  thus 
dividing  the  spoils.  Instead  of  responding  to  this  invi- 
tation, Austria  withdrew  her  forces  altogether  from 
Holstein,  under  protest,  and  then,  tailing  attention  to 
this  "act  of  violence"  on  the  part  of  Prussia,  proposed 
that  the  Diet  should  decree  "federal  execution"  against 
the  enemy  of  the  Empire.  This  eventful  resolution  was 
carried  by  a  great  majority  (June  14,  1866),  whereupon 
the  Prussian  Plenipotentiary,  in  the  name  of  his  Govern- 
ment, declared  the  German  Confederation  dissolved  for- 
ever, and  withdrew  from  it. 


3i2  MODERN  EUROPE 

Prussia  then  sent  identical  notes  to  Saxony,  Hanover, 
and  Hesse-Cassel,  who  had  supported  Austria  in  the  Diet, 
and,  the  terms  not  being  accepted,  the  Prussian  troops  at 
once  took  possession  of  the  Kingdoms.  War  was  begun 
against  Austria.  In  this  struggle  of  seven  weeks  a  deci- 
sive victory  remained  with  Prussia,  thanks  to  the  promp- 
titude of  her  movements,  the  admirable  training  of  her 
troops,  the  strategy  of  Moltke,  and  the  rapidity  of  fire 
from  the  breech-loading  rifle,  the  famous  "needle-gun," 
invented  by  Dreyse.  The  effect  of  the  latter  demoralized 
the  brave  Austrians,  and  caused  the  immediate  adoption 
of  breech-loaders  in  all  the  chief  armies  of  Europe.  The 
Austrian  artillery  vindicated  its  former  renown,  and  the 
cavalry  s'howed  heroic  devotion  at  critical  times.  The 
military  lesson  of  the  war  was  that  the  infantry  is  now, 
with  its  new  arm,  the  irresistible  arbiter  of  battle.  The 
great  conflict  was  in  the  South,  against  the  Austrian  army 
under  Count  Benedek,  in  Bohemia.  In  pushing  back  the 
Austrians,  as  they  strove  to  oppose,  first,  the  passage  O'f 
two  great  Prussian  armies  from  Saxony  and  from  Silesia 
into  Bohemia,  and  then  the  junction  of  those  forces,  the 
Prussians  won  several  important  victories  during  the  last 
week  of  June.  The  decisive  battle  of  Koniggratz  (or 
Sadowa),  in  the  northeast  of  Bohemia,  was  fought  on 
July  3.  In  this  famous  conflict  an  Austrian  army  of  over 
200,000  men,  strongly  posted,  was  attacked  by  130,000 
Prussians  under  Prince  Frederick  Charles,  the  operations 
being  directed,  as  throughout  the  whole  campaign,  by 
the  keen  and  imperturbable  von  Moltke.  The  Prussian 
attacks  on  the  right  and  center  were  repulsed,  and  mat- 
ters were  looking  serious,  when  the  Prussian  Crown 
Prince  Frederick  William  arrived,  as  directed,  on  the  Aus- 
trian right  rear  with  a  fresh  force  of  100,000  men,  includ- 
ing the  Prussian  guards.  The  blow  was  as  terribly  deci- 


RIVALRY  OF  AUSTRIA  AND  PRUSSIA     313 

sive  as  the  arrival  of  Bliicher's  troops  in  a  precisely  similar 
quarter  of  the  field,  at  Waterloo,  and  the  Austrian  army 
was  defeated  with  the  loss  of  many  guns. 

In  Italy  matters  had  gone  well  for  the  Austrian  forces. 
On  June  24  the  Italian  army,  under  the  King,  was  defeated 
at  Custozza  by  Archduke  Albert,  and  driven  back  across 
the  Mincio.  On  July  20  the  Austrian  admiral,  Tegethoff, 
inflicted  a  severe  defeat  on  the  Italian  fleet  at  Lissa,  one 
of  the  Dalmatian  Islands.  These  successes  pleased  Aus- 
trian pride  as  regarded  Italy,  and  smoothed  the  way  to  a 
beneficial  end  for  the  Italians. 

After  Sadowa  the  victorious  Prussians  marched 
toward  Vienna,  and  the  Austrian  Government  yielded  to 
superior  force,  and  concluded  the  Treaty  of  Prague  (Aug- 
ust 23,  1866).  Venetia  and  the  east  of  Lombardy  were 
given  up  to  Italy;  the  old  German  Confederation  was  dis- 
solved; a  new  North  German  Confederation  (headed  by 
Prussia),  to  the  exclusion  of  Austria  altogether  as  a  Ger- 
manic power,  was  formed.  Hesse-Cassel,  Nassau,  Han- 
over, Schleswig-Holstein,  and  Lauenburg  were  annexed, 
as  new  provinces,  to  Prussia,  raising  the  population  of  the 
Kingdom  to  about  twenty-four  millions.  It  was  exactly 
sixty  years  since  the  old  German  Empire  had  been  extin- 
guished by  Napoleon.  This  new  confederation,  which 
was  the  stepping-stone  to  German  unity,  included  twenty- 
one  states,  the  chief  being  Prussia,  Saxony,  Brunswick, 
Oldenburg,  the  Mecklenburgs,  Hamburg,  Liibeck,  Bre- 
men,and  Saxe-Coburg,  Prussia  having  the  command  of 
the  armies  and  the  power  of  peace  and  war  to  the  north 
of  the  Main.  The  King  of  Prussia  also  acquired,  by  sepa- 
rate treaties,  the  command  of  the  armies  of  Bavaria, 
Wiirtemberg,  and  Baden;  and  this  had  important  conse- 
quences, four  years  later,  in  enabling  Germany  to  take 
prompt  action  against  France  in  1870.  Bismarck  was 


3H  MODERN  EUROPE 

appointed  Chancellor  of  the  Confederation  and  President 
of  the  Federal  Council.  The  army  of  Saxony  was  to  be 
under  the  orders  of  Prussia  in  case  of  war.  The  result  of 
the  Seven  Weeks'  War  had  been  the  establishment  of 
Prussia  as  the  leading  power  in  Germany,  and  as  prob- 
ably the  chief  military  power  in  Europe — a  position  hith- 
erto supposed  to  belong  to  France.  The  Prussian  suc- 
cesses in  the  war  of  1866  were  regarded  in  France  with 
great  jealousy,  in  having  conduced  to  the  German  unity 
which  French  policy  had  always  striven  to  thwart,  and  in 
having  raised  to  so  powerful  an  eminence  the  State  which 
France  had  struck  down  sixty  years  before.  The  atti- 
tude and  conduct  of  Louis  Napoleon  and  his  government 
toward  Prussia  became  restless,  irritating,  and  intrusive; 
and  though  war  was  for  the  time  averted  in  a  dispute 
about  Luxemburg,  it  was  certain  that  a  struggle  for  con- 
tinental supremacy  was  not  far  distant. 

Since  the  great  war  of  1866  the  history  of  Austria 
has  been  chiefly  concerned  with  the  attempt  to  arrange  the 
conflicting  claims  and  rights  of  the  diverse  races  who 
constitute  the  Empire.  First  the  dispute  with  Hungary 
had  to  be  settled.  The  political  independence  of  Hun- 
gary was  recognized,  the  Emperor  being  crowned  King 
at  Pesth  in  accordance  with  the  old  rites  (1867).  The 
Emperor  Franz  Joseph  became  King  of  Hungary  as  well 
as  Emperor  of  Austria,  and  the  two  nations,  by  the  Augs- 
leich,  are  independent  except  that  they  have  the  same  mon- 
arch and  are  united  in  foreign  affairs.  Within  the  Empire 
there  has  been  a  large  development  of  constitutional  free- 
dom, the  first  Parliamentary  ministry  being  formed  at 
Cisleithania,  at  the  end  of  1867.  Education  has  been 
freed  from  the  control  of  the  Church,  civil  marriage  is 
permitted  and  press  laws  have  been  relaxed.  The  Slav 
element  has  been  a  source  of  much  worriment  and  during 


RIVALRY  OF  AUSTRIA  AND  PRUSSIA     315 

1896,  1897,  and  1898  the  Austrian  Parliament  has  been 
the  scene  of  much  disorder  caused  by  apparently  irrecon- 
cilable differences  between  the  races  forming  the  conglom- 
erate Empire.  Although  the  chief  aim  of  foreign  affairs 
has  been  to  be  on  good  terms  with  both  Germany  and 
Russia,  Austria  entered  into  the  Triple  Alliance  in  1887. 
Under  the  treaty  of  Berlin  (1878)  Austria  acquired  Bos- 
nia and  Herzogovinia,  now  finally  lost  to  the,  fast-decay- 
ing Turkey. 


NAPOLEON  III  AND  ITALIAN  UNITY 

Louis  Napoleon  ruled  France  as  Napoleon  III, 
Emperor  of  the  French,  for  nearly  eighteen  years,  from 
December,  1852,  to  September,  1870.  It  was  a  maxim  of 
the  Emperor  that  liberty  never  helped  to  make  a  durable 
political  edifice;  it  could  only  crown  a  political  edifice 
which  time  had  consolidated.  The  Constitution  which  he 
bestowed  upon  submissive  France  was  based  upon  this 
estimate  of  liberty.  His  government  was  a  despotism 
founded  on  universal  suffrage.  The  lower  chamber  was 
appointed  by  the  people,  but  could  originate  nothing;  it 
could  only  discuss  measures  submitted  to  it  by  the 
Emperor,  and  the  amendments  which  it  suggested  could 
be  adopted  or  rejected  by  the  Council  of  State — a  body 
nominated  by  the  Emperor. 

The  character  of  Napoleon  III  is  perplexing  from  the 
vagueness  of  some  parts  of  its  outline,  and  the  inconsis- 
tent, and  sometimes  contradictory,  manifestations  which 
appear  in  the  actions  and  demeanor  of  this  favorite  of 
fortune.  He  possessed  high  intelligence,  much  insight 
into  men,  boundless  faith  in  his  "star."  He  had  little  of 
real  political,  military,  or  administrative  genius.  He  had 
a  dreamy,  contemplative,  hesitating  mind,  a  soul  full  of 
tranquil  and  patient  fatalism,  a  cool  personal  courage,  a 
political  morality  without  scruple  and  without  remorse, 
because  he  was  sincerely  persuaded  that  whatever  he  did, 
or  allowed  to  be  done  for  him,  was  the  work  of  his  Fate. 
In  his  rise  to  power  he  was  accepted  first  by  Paris — 
that  city  of  people  who  are  at  once  "artistic,  childish, 
sublime,  and  foolish,  admirable  to-day,  absurd  to-morrow" 

316 


NAPOLEON  III  AND  ITALIAN  UNITY      317 

• — and  then  by  France,  in  despair  of  a  stable  government 
in  any  other  shape  or  kind.  The  crimes  which  raised 
Louis  Napoleon  to  eminence,  the  corruptions  which 
debased  his  administration  and  sapped  the  country's 
strength,  leaving  her  army  and  her  rulers  helpless  under 
the  strain  of  contest  with  a  really  formidable  power — 
these  were  the  work  of  a  legion  of  adventurers  who  sur- 
rounded him,  creatures  of  prey,  plotters  of  reaction,  all 
that  was  impure  in  the  French  Nation.  His  rule  in  France 
proves  that,  save  in  the  case  of  men  of  the  highest  capa- 
city, "to  intrust  the  destinies  of  all  to  the  keeping  of  one," 
in  the  words  of  George  Sand,  "is  the  most  culpable  and 
most  senseless  act  that  a  civilized  Nation  can  commit." 

Under  him  the  French  Nation  submitted  to  despotic 
rule  for  the  sake  of  order  at  home,  commercial  prosperity, 
and  the  gratification  of  national  self-love  in  the  assump- 
tion and  retention  by  France  of  a  leading  place  in  Europe 
— which  she  held  until  the  war  with  Prussia.  "The 
Empire,"  he  said,  "menaces  no  one;  it  desires  to  develop 
in  peace  and  full  independence  the  vast  resources  it  has 
received  from  heaven."  It  is  but  one  of  the  inevitable 
results  of  a  bad  tradition  that  he,  like  his  predecessors, 
hoped  to  succeed  in  securing  prosperity  to  France  by  con- 
stant interference,  and  by  making  the  Nation  feel  the  pres- 
ence at  the  head  of  an  irresponsible  but  beneficent  master. 
At  the  same  time  he  gave  employment  to  the  restless  arti- 
sans of  the  great  cities;  towns  were  half  rebuilt,  Paris  espe- 
cially felt  this  benign  benevolence,  which,  while  it  fed 
the  workman  made  him  destroy  his  own  means  of  resist- 
ance to  the  government — for  the  rebuilding  of  Paris  by 
Haussman  was  planned  so  as  to  drive  great  and  straight 
military  roads,  through  all  the  disaffected  quarters  of  the 
North  and  East.  Railways,  canals,  harbors,  public  build- 
ings, above  all,  churches  new  and  old,  showed  the  Imperial 


3i8  MODERN  EUROPE 

hand.  Great  progress  was  made  in  commerce,  mining, 
manufactures,  agriculture,  and  the  fine  arts.  On  the  sur- 
face France  was  never  so  prosperous. 

"The  Empire  is  peace,"  Napeoleon  III  said,  in  1852, 
at  Bordeaux.  Yet  the  Empire  was  seldom  at  peace.  The 
Emperor  liked  too  well  to  play  the  role  of  adjuster  of  the 
wrongs  of  other  nations,  a  role  which  flattered  the  vanity 
of  the  French  as  well  as  that  of  himself.  The  French 
government  was  mainly  responsible  for  the  Crimean  war. 
France  had  long  been  regarded  as  the  protector  of  the 
rights  of  Latin  Christians  in  the  East,  and  when  troubles 
broke  out  in  1853  between  Russia  and  the  Sultan,  and 
the  Czar  decided  to  occupy  Turkey  and  seize  Constan- 
tinople, France  came  forward  and  formed  an  alliance  with 
England  to  protect  the  Turk.  The  alliance  with  England 
pleased  the  French  people.  The  Emperor  and  Empress 
went  to  London  to  visit  Queen  Victoria;  and  England 
and  France  together  declared  war  against  Russia  in  1854, 
while  Prussia  and  Austria  announced  that  the  latter  power 
should  evacuate  the  Balkans  principalities.  The  war  was 
costly  and  prolonged,  but  it  yielded  glory,  and  Sebastopol 
was  accepted  as,  in  some  measure,  expiation  for  Moscow. 
When  peace  was  restored  the  Empire  presented  the  aspect 
of  a  stable  government  resting  solidly  upon  the  support 
of  a  contented  and  thriving  people. 

No  sooner  had  pea,ce  been  gained  than  the  Imperial 
mind  busied  itself  to  devise  some  other  new  and  dazzling 
scheme.  The  deliverance  of  Italy  was  the  task  which  he 
undertook,  and  that  it  had  been  begun  by  his  uncle  made 
it  all  the  more  attractive  to  him.  It  is  true  that  all  the 
strength  o>f  France  had  been  exerted  in  1849  to  crtish  the 
heroic  defense  of  Garibaldi,  but  at  that  time  Napoleon 
was  merely  President  and  he  afterward  asserted  that  the 


NAPOLEON  III  AND  ITALIAN  UNITY      319 

expedition  had  been  urged  upon  him  by  a  force  of  public 
opinion  which  he  could  not  resist. 

To  Cavour  was  due  the  enlisting  of  Louis  Napoleon's 
aid  for  Italy.  Even  in  1849  when  all  hope  seemed  gone 
and  Italy  had  measured  her  strength  with  that  of  her 
oppressors  and  had  been  beaten  to  the  ground  Cavour  did 
not  despair.  In  the  gloomy  years  that  followed  1849, 
the.  Kingdom  of  Sardinia  stood  out  in  bright  relief  as  a 
State  which,  though  crushed  upon  the  battlefield,  had 
remained  true  to  the  cause  of  liberty  while  all  around 
it  the  force  of  reaction  gained  triumph  after  triumph.  It 
was  the  only  free  and  independent  and  constitutional 
State  of  Italy.  Cavour,  one  of  the  greatest  statesmen  of 
the  world,  was  its  prime  minister.*  King  Victor  Emman- 
uel, its  King,  recognized  his  ability  and  allowed  him  full 
sway  for  his  diplomatic  powers.  It  was  by  the  advice  of 
Cavour  that  Sardinia  interfered  in  the  Crimean  war;  not 
so  much  because  Sardinia  had  just  causes  of  complaint 
against  the  Czar,  but  that  Victor  Emmanuel's  soldiers, 
under  La  Marmoth,  might  fight  bravely  side  by  side  with 
those  of  France  and  England,  and  that  the  Sardinian 
premier  might  take  his  place  by  the  side  of  the  representa- 
tives of  the  great  powers,  and  when  the  main  business  of 
the  conference  was  concluded,  Count  Buol,  the  Austrian 
Minister,  was  forced  to  listen  to  a  vigorous  denunciation 
by  Cavour  of  the  misgovernment  that  reigned  in  Central 
and  Southern  Italy  and  of  the  Austrian  occupation  which 
rendered  this  possible.  Although  Cavour  returned  to 
Italy  without  any  territorial  reward  for  the  services  that 
Peidmont  had  rendered  to  the  allies,  his  object  Was  gained. 
He  had  exhibited  Austria  isolated  and  discredited  before 
Europe;  he  had  given  to  his  country  a  voice  that  it  had 
never  held  before  in  the  councils  of  the  powers;  and  he 

*See  volume    "Foreign  Statesmen." 


320  MODERN  EUROPE 

had  produced  a  deep  conviction  throughout  Italy  that 
Piedmont  not  only  could  and  would  act  with  vigor  against 
the  national  enemy,  but  that  in  its  action  it  would  have 
the  help  of  allies.  The  Austrians  immediately  realized 
this  and  Franz  Joseph  showed  less  violence  toward  the 
Italians.  Cavour  now  endeavored  to  win  an  ally  for  the 
quarrel  with  Austria,  which  was  inevitable.  Sardinia 
ruled  a  population  of  only  4,000,000,  while  20,000,000 
owned  the  sway  of  Austria,  Naples,  the  Pope,  and  the 
Dukes,  who  stood  for  the  reactionary  forces.  The  brave 
little  Kingdom,  which  alone  upheld  liberty  in  the  peninsula, 
was  surrounded  by  despotic  powers  of  overwhelming 
strength.  Cavour  would  have  preferred  an  alliance  with 
Great  Britain,  which  had  no  objects  of  its  own  to  seek 
in  Italy,  but  when  he  found  that  the  government  o>f  Lon- 
don would  not  assist  him  he  drew  closer  to  the  Emperor 
Napoleon.  It  was  to  France's  advantage  to  strengthen 
Sardinia  as  it  would  create  a  troublesome  neighbor  for 
Austria.  An  agreement  was  made  between  France  and 
Sardinia.  France  was  to  drive  the  Austrians  out  of  Italy 
and  procure  the  union  of  Lombardy  and  Venetia  with  Sar- 
dinia. In  the  event  of  success  France  was  to  be  recom- 
pensed by  the  cession  of  Savoy  and  Nice. 

On  New  Year's  Day,  1859,  the  foreign  ambassadors 
went,  according  to  their  custom,  to  make  a  visit  of  compli- 
ment to  the  Emperor  at  the  Tuileries.  When  his  majesty 
approached  the  Austrian  Ambassador,  he  said  to  him,  in 
a  tone  of  well-assumed  anger,  that  although  the  relations 
of  the  two  countries  were  not  such  as  he  could  desire,  his 
personal  feelings  toward  the  Emperor  of  Austria  were 
unchanged.  This  was  justly  regarded  as  an  intimation 
of  hostile  purposes.  And  so  it  proved.  The  three  pow- 
ers had  been  arming  as  for  an  inevitable  conflict  and 
they  were  now  ready.  After  some  fruitless  attempts  at 


NAPOLEON  III  AND  ITALIAN  UNITY      321 

mediation  by  England,  the  Austrians  entered  Sardinian 
territory  and  a  French  army  hastened  to  the  rescue.  The 
Emperor  himself  took  command  in  chief  and  Victor 
Emmanuel  placed  himself  under  his  orders. 

The  war  was  disastrous  for  Austria.  In  some  engage- 
ments of  inferior  importance,  her  troops  were  unable  to 
keep  the  field  and  in  the  battles  of  Magenta,  June  4,  and 
Solferino,  June  25,  she  suffered  crushing  defeat.  At 
Solferino  her  losses  in  killed,  wounded,  and  prisoners  were 
nearly  30,000.  The  troops  were  much  demoralized  by 
continued  defeat  and  it  was  not  doubted  that  decisive  suc- 
cess was  now  within  easy  grasp  of  the  allies.  But  during 
a  period  of  two  weeks  France  lay  inexplicably  idle.  Then 
it  became  known  that  the  Emperor  Napoleon  had  sepa- 
rately offered  an  armistice  to  Austria  and  that  peace  would 
follow.  The  Italians  were  indignant  and,  forgetting  the 
service  that  France  had  rendered  them,  denounced  the 
desertion  of  their  cause.  Peace  was  quickly  concluded. 
Austria  acknowledged  defeat  by  yielding  Lombardy,  with 
a  population  of  nearly  3,000,000;  but  she  was  allowed 
to  retain  Venetia,  with  a  population  of  3,500,000.  The 
Duchies  of  Tuscany,  Parma,  and  Modena  had  driven  out 
their  rulers  and  a  portion  of  the  subjects  of  the  Pope 
had  rejected  the  temporal  authority  of  his  Holiness.  The 
treaty  provided  that  the  people  of  these  States  should 
return  to  their  allegiance;  but  it  was  found  that  this  resto- 
ration could  not  be  accomplished  otherwise  than  by  mili- 
tary force,  which  neither  France  nor  Sardinia  would 
apply.  The  wise  resolution  was  adopted  to  leave  the 
people  themselves  to  fix  their  destiny.  Almost  unani- 
mously (March,  1860,)  the  people  elected  to  join  them- 
selves to  Sardinia. 

By  a  war  which  lasted  not  quite  three  months,  Sar- 
dinia had  just  been  able  to  add  9,000,000  to  the  popu- 

VOI..  2—21 


$22  MODERN  EUROPE 

iation  over  which  she  ruled.  She  owed  this  great  acces- 
sion wholly  to  the  help  of  France.  But  the  Italians 
thought  less  of  the  advantages  which  they  had  gained 
than  of  those  in  regard  to  which  they  suffered  disappoint- 
ment. General  Garibaldi  told  them  it  was  foolish  to  have 
put  their  trust  in  the  man  who  had  overthrown  liberty  in 
France.  Especially  was  the  Emperor  hated  when  it  was 
known  that  Savoy  and  Nice,  the  earliest  possessions  of  the 
royal  house  of  Sardinia,  were  now  to  be  surrendered  to 
France.  Garibaldi,  himself  a  native  of  Nice,  indignantly 
denounced  an  arrangement  which  made  him  a  foreigner  in 
his  own  country. 

The  great  events  which  had  come  to  pass  in  Northern 
and  Central  Italy  sent  their  thrilling  influences  among  the 
people  in  the  South.  At  the  close  of  the  war  Naples, 
containing  a  population  of  9,000,000,  was  still  ruled  by  a 
Bourbon  who  maintained  over  the  unhappy  people  a 
shameful  despotism.  The  Neapolitans  were  quick,  intel- 
ligent and  good  natured — a  people  capable  of  high  civili- 
zation but  cruelly  debased  by  Centuries  of  wicked  gov- 
ernment. They  were  ignorant,  idle,  superstitious,  and 
without  just  ideas  of  right  and  wrong.  The  town 
swarmed  with  beggars.  Ferdinand  II  was  then  King, 
the  last  of  a  line  of  bigoted  tyrants.  His  government  was 
regarded  with  abhorrence  by  his  subjects  and  with  strong 
disapproval  by  Europe.  Remonstrances  from  foreign 
powers  had  no  effect  with  the  man  who  had  won  the  nick- 
name of  King  Bomba  and  who  had  caused  his  own  people 
to  be  shot  down  in  the  streets  and  had  denied  them  any 
liberty.  An  insurrection  broke  out  in  Sicily,  May  5,  1860. 
With  2,000  men,  old  soldiers  of  liberty,  Garibaldi  sailed 
from  Genoa  and  landed  at  Marsalla  to  direct  the  move- 
ment. His  battle  cry  was  "Italy  and  Victor  Emmanuel." 
This  invasion,  in  the  King's  name,  of  the  territory  of  a 


NAPOLEON  III  AND  ITALIAN  UNITY      323 

friendly  power  embarrassed  Sardinia  not  a  little — espe- 
cially since  without  the  sanction  of  France  encouragement 
could  hardly  be  given  to  the  conquest  of  Naples.  And  so 
Cavour  officially  disapproved  of  Garibaldi's  expedition, 
but  stood  ready  to  accept  the  advantages  which  its  suc- 
cess offered.  Victor  Emmanuel  wrote  to  Garibaldi  and 
asked  him  to  desist;  but  Garibaldi,  with  many  loyal  and 
dutiful  assurances,  declared  that  he  was  called  for  and 
urged  on  by  the  people  of  Naples  and  said  that  he  must 
disobey  as  he  dared  not  endanger  the  cause  of  Italy. 
Ferdinand  fled  and  Garibaldi  defeated  the  Neapolitan 
troops  at  Regio  and  San  Giovanni  and  entered  Naples 
September  8,  where  he  was  hailed  as  a  deliverer.  The 
people  received  him  with  enthusiasm  and,  with  Italian 
demonstrativeness,  embraced  the  rugged  and  travel-stained 
soldiers.  For  a  time  Garibaldi  became  dictator  and  gov- 
erned Naples.  The  people  were  asked  to  elect  their  polit- 
ical future.  They  voted  by  vast  majorities  in  favor  of 
union  with  Sardinia,  and  in  1861  the  first  Italian  Parlia- 
ment met  at  Turin,  when  Victor  Emmanuel  became  King 
of  a  united  Italy — united  by  the  genius  and  daring  of 
Garibaldi  as  well  as  by  the  statesmanship  of  Count  Cavour. 
For  a  time  there  was  a  good  deal  of  friction  between  the 
various  incorporated  States,  just  as  a  good  deal  of  sus- 
picion existed  between  Cavour  and  Garibaldi,  but  at  last 
all  differences  were  dispelled  by  vigorous  and  wise  policy. 
Garibaldi  retired  to  his  mountain  isle  of  jCaprera  and  Italy 
lost  Cavour  ( 1861)  who  was  not  destined  to  see  the  com- 
pletion of  the  work  to  which  he  had  devoted  his  life. 

The  foundations  of  Italian  unity  had  been  laid  by  the 
judicious  interference  of  Sardinia  in  the  strife  of  great 
European  powers.  A  judicious  repetition  of  the  same 
strategy  won  Venetia  for  Italy.  When,  in  1866,  war 
broke  out  between  Prussia  and  Austria,  Italy  made  an. 


324  MODERN  EUROPE 

alliance  with  Prussia  and  Garibaldi  came  from  Caprera 
once  more.  In  June  war  began,  but  the  royal  troops  were 
defeated  at  Custozza  and  the  Garibaldian  volunteers  at 
Monte  Suello.  The  victories  of  Prussia,  however,  were 
so  overwhelming  that  Austria  could  no  longer  hold  Venice, 
and  that  city,  with  the  great  Northern  fortresses,  passed 
over  to  Italy.  During  the  war  the  Italian  fleet  was  badly 
defeated  in  an  engagement  off  Lissa.  Two  days  after 
Sadowa  Austria  ceded  Venetia  to  France,  and  Emperor 
Napoleon  gracefully  handed  his  acquisition  to  the  Italian 
government. 

Now  Italy  was  free  from  the  Alps  to  the  Adriatic — 
the  sole  remaining  obstacle  being  the  Papal  States,  a  con- 
siderable territory  surrounding  Rome,  which  the  Church 
claimed  to  possess  as  the  patrimony  of  St.  Peter.  The 
rest  of  Italy  coveted  it;  for  Rome  was  the  natural  capital 
of  Italy.  The  tottering  throne  of  the  Pope  was  upheld 
by  French  bayonets  and  the  King  of  Italy  was  firmly 
bound  by  a  convention  not  only  to  abstain  from  making 
any  attack  upon  the  territory  of  the  Holy  Father,  but 
also  to  resist  such  attack  by  others.  But  the  impatience 
of  the  Italian  people  became  irrepressible.  Insurrections 
broke  out  in  Rome.  Garibaldi  gathered  around  him  a 
band  of  unlicensed  liberators,  most  of  whom  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  French  and  Papal  troops.  The  King 
declared  against  him  as  his  attempt  had  failed.  But  the 
opportunity  came  to  Italy  three  years  later  when  war  broke 
out  between  France  and  Prussia.  When  the  French 
armies  had  been  shamefully  defeated,  undutiful  Italy 
forced  an  entrance  into  Rome,  and  the  unification  of  Italy 
was  achieved.  Rome  became  the  capital  of  Italy.  Victor 
Emmanuel  made  it  his  capital  and  lived  there  until  his 
death  in  1878.  He  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Humbert. 
The  most  important  internal  measure  since  was  the  wide 


NAPOLEON  III  AND  ITALIAN  UNITY      3^5 

extension  of  franchise  in  1882.  But  there  have  been  con- 
stant troubles  with  France,  and  Italy's  rise  to  a  great 
power  has  led  to  an  enormous  increase  in  taxation  which 
has  borne  heavily  on  the  people  and  led  to  serious  riots 
in  the  chief  cities  in  1898.  Jealousy  of  France  induced 
Italy  to  join  the  triple  alliance  with  Germany  and  Austria 
and  the  increased  armament  necessary  has  been  a  great 
burden  for  the  people.  Italy  lost  some  prestige  by  her 
defeat  in  the  wars  with  Emperor  Menelik  of  Abyssinia 
(1896)  when  she  was  compelled  to  relinquish  the  protec- 
torate which  she  had  claimed  over  that  African  region. 


FALL  OF  THE  SECOND  EMPIRE— FRANCO- 
GERMAN  WAR 

Meanwhile  Napoleon  III,  in  spite  of  his  declaration 
that  "the  Empire  is  peace,"  continued  to  interfere  in  for- 
eign affairs  in  a  way  that  insured  the  downfall  of  the  polit- 
ical edifice  he  had  reared.  A  few  months  after  he  had 
deserted  the  Italians,  disorders  of  an  aggravated  character 
broke  out  in  Syria  and  hundreds  of  Christians  were  mas- 
sacred and  the  French  consulate  destroyed.  The  Emperor 
sent  an  expedition  into  Syria  and  order  was  restored,  but 
the  troops  remained  until  their  recall  was  demanded  by 
Lord  Palmerston.  Europe  and  Asia  not  affording  ade- 
quate scope  for  the  scheming  and  restless  Emperor,  he 
interfered  in  America.  Mexico  had  always  been  a  wild 
chaos  of  misrule  and  disorder,  but  his  intervention  only 
led  to  greater  bloodshed  and  ended  ignominiously  for 
his  arms  and  fatally  for  the  cause  and  life  of  his  protege, 
the  Austrian  Prince  Maximilian  (See  volume  "American 
History"  ) .  Again  the  Emperor  ardently  desired  to  recog- 
nize the  independence  of  the  Confederate  States  in  the 
American  Civil  War,  but  was  persuaded  not  to  by  the 
English. 

There  were  a  few  years  of  quiet,  but  although  the  bril- 
liant success  of  the  Paris  exposition  of  1867  seemed  to 
afford  evidence  of  personal  and  national  consideration  in 
which  the  Emperor  was  held,  his  political  credit  had 
already  then  lost  its  importance.  At  home  the  great  finan- 
cial embarrassments  of  his  government  were  rousing  the 
discontent  of  his  people,  and  to  avert  the  growing  dis- 
affection Napoleon  offered  (1869)  to  adopt  a  constitu- 

326 


FALL  OF  THE  SECOND  EMPIRE  3-7 

tional  form  of  government,  and  to  make  some  concessions 
in  regard  to  freedom  of  the  press.  It  was  soon  found 
that  the  responsibility  of  the  ministry  was  fictitious  and 
that  the  Emperor  availed  himself  of  its  protection  to  cloak 
his  own  acts  of  personal  government.  The  result  of  the 
appeal  made  to  the  Nation  (in  1870)  on  the  plea  of  secur- 
ing their  sanction  for  his  policy  was  not  what  he  had 
anticipated,  and  the  50,000  dissentient  votes  given  by  the 
troops  in  this  plebiscite  revealed  a  hitherto  unsuspected 
course  of  danger.  Confident  in  the  efficiency  of  the  army 
and  anxious  to  rekindle  its  ardor,  he  availed  himself  of 
the  pretext  to  declare  war  against  Prussia. 

For  Centuries  France  had  been  to  Germany  a  most 
undesirable  neighbor.  It  had  been  her  hereditary  policy 
to  repress  and  weaken  to  the  utmost  the  multitudinous 
States  which  lay  beyond  the  Rhine — to  maintain  their 
paralyzing  divisions,  to  foster  every  antipathy,  to  exer- 
cise a  destructive  predominance  in  the  internal  affairs  of 
a  race  which  might  become  a  formidable  rival.  France, 
united,  aggressive,  and  swift  in  movement,  found  an  easy 
prey  in  Germany — divided,  discordant,  unwieldy.  Louis 
XI  frustrated  Burgundy  in  her  natural  desire  to  unite  with 
Germany,  and  held  her  as  his  own.  Francis  I  intrigued 
to  gain  the  dignity  of  Emperor,  as  Louis  XIV  did  after 
him.  Louis  XIV  took  Alsace  and  Lorraine,  and  would  have 
taken  much  more  unless  he  had  been  prevented.  Louis  XV 
devised  the  erection  of  four  German  kingdoms  whose  pol- 
icy France  would  direct.  Napoleon  stole  German  terri- 
tory, and  gave  it  away  or  kept  it  in  his  own  family  as 
inclination  dictated.  He  assumed  the  subserviency  of 
Prussia  as  his  right,  and  chastised  her  hesitating  assertion 
of  independence  by  blows  which  were  almost  annihilat- 
ing. For  fifty  years  after  his  fall,  Prussia  had  rest  from 
French  aggression,  and  grew  in  power  by  the  wisdom 


328  MODERN  EUROPE 

of  her  government  and  the  peaceful  industry  of  her  people. 
Her  rise  was  regarded  with  unfriendly  eye,  and  with  a 
jealousy  which  became,  year  by  year,  more  intense.  In 
process  of  .time  there  occurred  the  war  in  which  Prussia 
was  signally  victorious  over  Austria  (1866).  She  was 
now  the  head  of  united  Northern  Germany,  and  all  men 
foresaw  the  early  adhesion  of  the  Southern  States  also. 
France  resented,  as  an  affront  to  her  majesty,  this  unpar- 
alleled increase  of  power.  A  cry  arose  for  immediate 
war.  But  the  army  had  been  lately  reduced,  and  it  was 
not  yet  furnished  with  the  new  musket  which  in  Prussia's 
hands  had  proved  so  deadly.  The  Emperor  perceived 
that  he  was  not  ready  and  he  "resisted  with  all  his 
strength,"  as  he  himself  tells,  "the  bellicose  ideas  which 
had  taken  possession  of  a  portion  of  the  public."  He 
restrained  the  untimely  zeal  of  his  followers,  but  he 
addressed  himself  with  diligence  to  the  work  of  preparing 
to  abate  the  audacious  strength  of  Germany.  The  law  of 
1868  increased  largely  the  number  of  his  recruits;  breech- 
loading  muskets  were  served  out  as  rapidly  as  they  could 
be  produced ;  vast  stores  were  accumulated  or  appeared  to 
be  so;  the  Emperor  himself  gave  much  thought  to  the 
organization  of  the  army  and  wrote  voluminous  memo- 
randa regarding  its  minutest  details. 

In  a  short  while  it  seemed  to  her  chiefs  that  France 
was  now  ready  to  set  about  reducing  the  intolerable 
strength  of  her  neighbor.  The  minister  of  war  asserted 
his  possession  of  an  army  which,  after  all  needful  deduc- 
tions, would  enable  him  to  place  400,000  men  on  the  fron- 
tier. Organization  was  faultless.  The  stores  of  cloth- 
ing were  inexhaustible;  "not  even  a  gaiter  button"  was 
wanting.  There  were  cartridges  enough  to  maintain  for 
years  the  slaughter  of  offending  Germans.  Elaborated  in 
secret,  and  known  to  the  world  only  by  dark  whispers, 


FALL  OF  THE  SECOND  EMPIRE  329 

was  the  terrible  mitrailleuse,  whose  power  was  now  to  be 
revealed  in  destruction  hitherto  unexampled.  The 
Emperor  satisfied  himself  that  Northern  Germany  could 
place  on  the  Rhine  no  more  than  330,000  men.  Even 
should  the  Southern  States  cast  in  their  lot  with  their 
Northern  brethren — a  contingency  which  he  scarcely 
apprehended — this  number  would  be  raised  only  to  420,- 
ooo.  He  might  thus  outnumber  his  enemies;  he  could 
not  be  appreciably  outnumbered  by  them.  With  a  natural 
confidence  in  the  fortune  of  his  house,  in  his  own  military 
skill  and  the  high  fighting  qualities  of  his  people,  the 
expectation  that  his  march  would  lead  him  to  Berlin  did 
not  appear  wholly  unwarranted. 

There  was  only  required  now  some  pretext  of  quar- 
rel— not  necessarily  credible,  but  at  least  susceptible  of 
being  expressed  in  the  decorous  phrases  of  diplomacy. 
This  was  opportunely  found.  The  distracted  Spaniards, 
searching  among  the  royal  families  of  Europe  for  a  king, 
chanced  upon  a  certain  Prince  Leopold  of  Hohenzollern, 
to  whom  they  addressed  the  prayer  that  he  would  rule 
over  them.  The  potentate  was  a  kinsman  of  the  King 
of  Prussia.  He  stood  in  a  closer  degree  of  relationship 
to  the  Emperor  himself,  but  the  King  might  be  regarded 
as  the  head  of  the  family  of  which  he  was  a  member,  and 
might  be  therefore  plausibly  held  responsible  for  his 
actions.  It  was  intimated  that  France  would  not  approve 
of  the  occupancy  of  the  throne  of  Spain  by  any  member 
of  the  house  of  Hohenzollern.  (July  4,  1870.)  The 
King,  caring  little  a'bout  the  affairs  of  the  Peninsula,  dis- 
claimed all  knowledge  of  responsibility  in  regard  to  the 
proceedings  of  his  relative.  What  was  still  more  to  the 
purpose,  that  relative  himself,  who  at  first  inclined  a  fav- 
orable ear  to  the  petition  of  Spain,  announced  decisively 
his  refusal  of  the  vacant  throne.  It  seemed  that  France 


330  MODERN  EUROPE 

had  lost  her  pretext  for  declaring  that  war  upon  which 
she  was  resolved.  But  the  Emperor  was  equal  even  to 
this  emergency.  He  demanded,  with  premeditated  rude- 
ness, a  pledge  that  the  King  would  never,  in  any  future 
time  permit  his  kinsman  to  accept  the  overtures  of  Spain. 
The  desired  refusal  was  promptly  given  on  July  n. 
Prussia  said  the  King  was  in  no  way  concerned  in  the 
transactions  of  Prince  Leopold  and  the  Spanish  Govern- 
ment, and  would  not  mix  herself  up  with  them.  Eight 
days  later,  July  19,  1870,  the  formal  declaration  of  war 
was  delivered  at  Berlin. 

There  is  no  room  for  doubt  that  in  the  visible  decline 
of  the  second  Empire  a  successful  war  had  become,  for 
personal  and  dynastic  reasons,  necessary  to  the  Emperor. 
In  truth  the  country  was  becoming  tired  of  his  govern- 
ment.    It  was  said  that  he  had  grown  old  and  ineffective. 
His  rule  was  very  expensive — more  so  than  any  republic, 
or  monarchy,  or  empire  which  France  had  ever  known. 
His  foreign  policy  had  brought  mainly  disgrace ;  his  plots 
had  all  been  found  out,  his  intrigues  had  all  been  baffled. 
Even  the  good  which  he  had  done  became  a  fault.     Thiers 
and  the  liberals  reproached  him  that  he  had  helped  to  make 
Italy  great.     France  now  demanded  that  he  should  mar 
the  threatening  greatness  of  Germany,  and  perpetuate  her 
enfeebling  divisions.     Probably  he  would  not  have  under- 
taken the  task  if  he  dared  shun  it.     But  the  voice  of  France 
was  for  war.     The  Chambers  were  unanimous;  Paris  was 
enthusiastic;  the  provinces  blindly  acquiesced.     France, 
with  unanimity,  sanctioned   the   great   crime   which  the 
Emperor,  not  without  reluctance   consented   to  commit. 
Six  weeks  later,  when  his  career  had  closed,  and  he  was 
a  prisoner  in  the  hands  of  the  Germans,  he  assured  Count 
Bismarck  that  he  himself  had  not  wished  for  war,  but 


FALL  OF  THE  SECOND  EMPIRE  331 

had  been  compelled  to  wage  it  by  the  pressure  of  public 
opinion. 

The  Emperor  joined  the  army  at  Metz,  prepared  to 
lead  his  eager  troops  across  the  Rhine  and  on  to  Berlin. 
(July  25,  1870).  Expressions  loud,  if  not  deep,  of  devo- 
tion to  his  person  and  enthusiastic  approbation  of  the  war 
were  showered  upon  him  at  every  stage  of  the  journey. 
But  there  met  him  at  the  very  outset  discoveries  fitted  not 
merely  to  disappoint,  but  also  to  alarm.  He  should  have 
found  himself  at  the  head  of  400,000  men,  perfectly  dis- 
ciplined and  equipped.  To  his  dismay,  there  were  no 
more  than  220,000.  The  men  of  the  reserve,  not  breath- 
ing the  general  enthusiasm,  "took  an  infinite  time,"  as  the 
Emperor  mourns,  "to  rejoin  their  corps."  Moreover,  it 
quickly  appeared,  when  they  came,  that  many  of  them  had 
not  been  drilled  in  the  use  of  the  breech-loading  musket, 
and  their  education  had  now  to  be  commenced  in  this  peril- 
ous hour  when  the  highest  accomplishment  in  the  use  of 
weapons  was  indispensable.  The  officers,  who  were  famil- 
iar with  the  mitrailleuse,  had  been  carelessly  drafted  off 
to  other  duties,  and  this  formidable  weapon  was  of  neces- 
sity entrusted  to  men  who  were  strangers  to  its  qualities. 
Supplies  of  every  description,  even  of  money  and  food, 
were  wanting.  Vast  accumulations  were  piled  up  in  two 
or  three  grand  depots  whence  they  could  not  be  rapidly 
delivered.  The  transport  wagons  were  stored  at  one 
point;  their  wheels  lay  elsewhere  at  a  distance,  and  weeks 
elapsed  before  the  inopportunely  scattered  members  of 
those  wagons  could  be  recombined.  The  artillery  were 
without  horses  until  they  borrowed  from  the  cavalry. 
The  only  maps  which  were  provided  were  of  Germany. 

It  was  the  intention  of  the  Emperor  to  cross  the  Rhine 
before  the  Germans  could  gather  strength  to  prevent  him. 


332  MODERN  EUROPE 

But  he  quickly  perceived  the  incompleteness  of  his  own.- 
preparations  rendered  this  impossible.  He  concentrated 
his  troops  for  an  advance  into  the  valley  of  the  Saar. 
At  Saarbrikk  there  lay  a  small  force  of  Germans,  who, . 
adventurously,  disputed  with  him  the  passage  of  the  river. 
But  they  were  driven  away  and  the  river  secured  (August 
2,  1870).  But  no  use  could  be  made  of  the  success.  The 
Emperor  was  not  to  enter  German  territory  till  four  or 
five  weeks  had  passed;  and  then  he  was  to  enter  it  as  a 
prisoner.  His  army  lay  inactive  for  two  days,  and  then 
fell  back  toward  Metz.  Already  the  idea  of  invasion  was- 
seen  to  be  hopeless.  For,  almost  from  the  day  that  war 
was  declared  the  armed  manhood  of  Germany  had  been 
hurrying  to  the  frontier — admirable  in  discipline,  mar- 
velously  complete  in  organization,  guided  by  the  highest 
military  genius  of  the  age.  Internal  divisions  yielded  to 
the  first  pressure  of  a  common  danger,  and  the  States  of 
the  South  marched  with  their  countrymen  of  the  North. 
By  day  and  night  railway  trains  followed  each  other  at 
brief  intervals,  laden  with  soldiers,  horses,  and  artillery. 
Fourteen  days  sufficed  to  place  450,000  perfectly  equipped 
Germans  face  to  face  with  the  rash  and  ill-prepared  arma- 
ment of  France. 

The  Germans  lost  no  time  in  beginning  the  invasion 
of  French  territory.  The  Crown  Prince  crossed  the' 
Lauter — at  that  point  is  the  boundary  which  divided  the 
two  countries — and  at  Weissenburg,  with  an  overwhelm- 
ing force,  fell  upon  the  French  and  defeated  them  (Aug- 
ust 4,  1870).  The  victorious  Germans  passed  immedi- 
ately southwards  toward  the  Worth,  where  Marshal  Mac- 
Mahon  was  striving  to  draw  his  scattered  forces  together. 
The  French  kept  careless  watch,  and  it  was  a  painful  sur- 
prise to  the  Marshal  to  be  attacked  in  the  early  morning 
by  a  force  which  here,  as  well  as  elsewhere,  largely  out 


FALL  OF  THE  SECOND  EMPIRE  333 

-numbered  his  own.  MacMahon  had  every  advantage  of 
position,  and  his  troops  fought  with  desperate  courage. 
But  they  failed  to  hold  their  ground  against  their  assail- 
ants. Both  sides  endured  heavy  loss,  and  the  French, 
beaten  and  disordered,  fled  from  the  field  on  August  6. 
Nor  was  this  the  only  calamity  which  befell  the  French 
on  that  unhappy  day.  At  Speichern  the  French,  under 
General  Frossard,  occupied  heights  which  were  deemed 
almost  impregnable.  But  the  Germans,  after  hours  of 
heavy  fighting,  scaled  the  heights  and  drove  the  French 
army  away  with  lamentable  slaughter  on  both  sides. 

This  accumulation  of  disaster  filled  the  Emperor  with 
dismay.  He  was  at  Metz,  vainly  endeavoring  to  hasten 
the  concentration  of  the  whole  force,  but  frustrated  at 
every  point  by  this  terrible  flood  of  armed  Germans  who 
overran  his  country  and  dashed  all  his  combinations  into 
hopeless  ruin.  He  already  thought  of  returning  to  Paris 
to  resume  the  reins  of  government.  But  the  Empress 
counseled  him  to  delay  his  return  until  he  should  have 
gained  an  important  success,  and  he  remained.  His  mili- 
tary reputation,  as  he  himself  states,  was  not  sufficiently 
established  to  resist  evil  fortune  and  the  confidence  of  his 
troops  diminished.  On  August  13  he  made  over  the  com- 
mand of  the  army  at  Metz  to  Marshal  Bazaine.  Hence- 
forth he  was  borne  helplessly  along,  scarcely  regarded 
either  by  his  Government  or  his  soldiers — "condemned  to 
impotence  while  he  saw  his  armies  and  his  government  on 
the  road  to  destruction."  To  the  evils  of  this  sad  posi- 
tion it  has  to  be  added  that  he  was  suffering  physical  pain, 
constant  and  often  intense,  from  the  disease  which  ulti- 
mately proved  fatal. 

It  was  yet  only  eleven  days  since  the  first  blow  had 
been  struck,  and  already  the  war  was  lost  beyond  hope 
of  recovery.  During  the  first  week  of  August  the  cry 


334  MODERN  EUROPE 

of  Paris  was  still  "On  to  Berlin."  So  sudden  was  the  col- 
lapse of  these  vain  hopes,  that  during  the  second  week 
the  concern  of  Paris  was  for  her  own  defense.  The  Pari- 
sians, who  so  lately  urged  their  Government  into  war,  now 
assailed  those  in  its  direction,  overthrew  a  ministry,  and 
assumed  an  attitude  threateningly  hostile  to  the  throne.  It 
was  determined  that  MacMahon,  who  had  withdrawn  to 
Chalons,  where  the  Emperor  had  joined  him,  should 
retreat  in  the  direction  of  Paris,  for  the  protection  oi  the 
capital.  But  the  next  day  brought  a  new  policy.  Bazaine 
had  been  left  at  Metz  surrounded  by  the  enemy,  and  the 
Government  "feared  the  worst"  in  Paris  if  he  should 
be  abandoned  to  his  fate  (August  21,  1870).  MacMa- 
hon must,  therefore,  hasten  to  his  relief.  The  Marshal 
hesitated,  for  he  knew  the  enterprise  to  be  impossible. 
His  troops — 140,000  in  number — were  not  all  of  the  best 
quality;  they  were  exhausted  by  toilsome  marches,  dis- 
couraged by  defeat,  and  insufficiently  provided  with  the 
most  indispensable  supplies.  Their  flank  must  be  exposed 
during  their  long  march  of  no  miles  to  the  attack  of  an 
enemy  of  unknown  strength,  of  whose  energy  they  had 
already  had  terrible  experience.  Confidence  in  their  lead- 
ers was  gone;  and  the  gloom  which  forebodes  and  invites 
disaster  was  in  every  heart  and  on  every  face.  But  the 
fear  of  revolution  in  Paris  overruled  all  other  considera- 
tions and  on  the  23d  of  August  the  Marshal  set  out  on  a 
march  which  he  scarcely  hoped  could  end  otherwise  than 
in  ruin. 

Meanwhile  Bazaine  had  suffered  fierce  attack  from 
the  Germans.  He  vainly  attempted  to  escape  from  Metz. 
He  fought  two  bloody  and  indecisive  battles  at  Rezon- 
ville  (August  1 6)  and  Gravelotte  (August  18).  He 
found  it  impossible  to  break  through  the  German  lines, 


FALL  OF  THE  SECOND  EMPIRE  335 

and  he  drew  back  his  disheartened  troops  to  the  shelter  of 
the  forts. 

Tidings  of  MacMahon's  movements  were  immedi- 
ately carried  to  the  Prussian  camp.  His  purpose  could 
at  first  only  be  guessed,  but  it  was  rightly  guessed,  and 
prompt  measures  were  taken  for  its  frustration.  Two 
German  armies,  numbering  160,000  men,  were  suffi- 
ciently strong  to  shut  in  Bazaine  till  hunger  forced  his 
surrender.  The  other  two  armies — the  third  and  the 
fourth — with  a  strength  of  230,000,  were  available  for 
service  elsewhere.  It  was  possible  for  this  great  force 
to  fall  upon  MacMahon,  while  still  on  his  march,  and 
before  he  could  receive  help  from  Bazaine.  The  two 
armies  immediately  .turned  northward. 

As  the  French  drew  near  the  little  town  of  Stenay, 
where  they  proposed  to  cross  the  River  Meuse,  the  Ger- 
mans approached  them  closely,  and  in  overwhelming 
numbers  were  concentrating  on  their  flank  (August  26). 
The  country  was  densely  wooded;  the  watch  of  the 
French  was,  as  usual,  careless.  At  Beaumont  a  German 
force,  issuing  from  forest  roads,  burst  upon  the  unex- 
pectant  French  occupied  in  cooking.  In  the  engage- 
ment which  followed  the  French  were  forced  aside  from 
the  advance  which  would  have  led  them  to  Metz,  and 
driven  northward  toward  Sedan.  About  midnight  the 
wearied  men  set  out  on  this  dismal  journey.  The  night 
was  dark;  heavy  rains  had  made  the  roads  difficult;  the 
confusion  which  prevailed  was  extreme.  All  night  the 
men  toiled  forward,  and  reached  Sedan  at  nine  next 
morning.  The  Emperor  had  gone  to  the  little  town 
of  Carignan  to  rest  for  the  night.  A  message  from  Mac- 
Mahon told  him  of  the  enforced  change  of  route,  and 
required  him  to  repair  to  Sedan.  He  arrived  there  late 
at  night,  without  baggage  or  escort,  and  walked  almost 


33<5  MODERN  EUROPE 

alone  from  the  little  railway  station  into  the  town  where 
the  crowning  agony  of  his  career  was  to  be  endured. 
His  advisers  urged  him  to  go  further  and  save  himself, 
but  he  refused.  Life  was  little  worth  saving  then.  He 
would  stay  with  his  army  and  share  the  fate  which  no 
power  could  now  avert. 

The  next  day  the  French  busied  themselves  in  restor- 
ing some  measure  of  order  in  their  ranks,  and  in  making 
such  preparations  as  they  found  possible  for  the 
approaching  conflict.  All  that  day  the  German  advance 
continued.  When  night  fell  their  two  armies  had  gath- 
ered themselves  around  the  French  so  closely  and  in 
such  strength  that  resistance  was  hopeless,  and  escape, 
in  the  event  of  defeat,  impossible. 

The  French  occupied  a  range  of  heights  which 
overlook  Sedan  and  the  Valley  of  the  Meuse.  Before 
daybreak  (September  i)  the  indefatigable  Germans 
advanced  to  the  attack.  Their  coming  was  not  expected 
at  so  early  an  hour,  but  the  French  stood  their  ground. 
The  Marshal,  hastening  to  the  front,  was  struck  down 
and  disabled  by  a  fragment  of  a  bursting  shell.  As 
they  bore  him  from  the  field  he  was  met  by  the  Emperor, 
who  spoke  some  kind  words  and  rode  onward  to  the 
battle.  It  was  their  final  parting — tragical  and  mourn- 
ful as  few  partings  have  been. 

No  one  understood  the  position  of  the  two  armies, 
or  knew  anything  of  the  Marshal's  plans — if,  indeed, 
he  had  any  plan  beyond  a  resolution  to  fight  stubbornly 
to  the  last.  He  made  over  the  command  to  General 
Ducrot,  who  began  to  order  certain  new  dispositions. 
But  an  hour  or  two  later  the  command  was  claimed  by 
General  Wimpffen,  who  had  just  arrived  from  Africa,  and 
who  bore  a  commission  from  the  Minister  of  War. 
This  new  leader  at  once  reversed  the  arrangements 


*  W 

Z     c 

W     'S 


FALL  OF  THE  SECOND  EMPIRE  337 

of  Ducrot.  The  manifest  vacillation  in  command 
destroyed  confidence  among  the  troops  and  accelerated 
the  now  inevitable  ruin.  For  many  hours,  however, 
they  maintained  with  heroic  courage  the  hopeless  strug- 
gle— enduring  and  inflicting  lamentable  slaughter  of 
brave  men.  The  fortune  of  war  was  so  decisively 
adverse,  that  the  utmost  hope  of  the  General  was  to  hold 
his  ground  till  nightfall,  and  then  to  break  through  and 
escape. 

The  Germans  attacked  the  French  positions  and  car- 
ried them  one  by  one,  along  the  whole  line,  four  or  five 
miles  in  length.  They  established  artillery  on  the 
heights,  until  at  the  close  there  were  500  pieces  whose 
fire  commanded  every  foot  of  ground  upon  which  a 
Frenchman  stood.  By  four  o'clock  resistance  ceased. 
The  French  had  been  driven  into  Sedan  or  scattered  or 
captured.  Sedan  was  a  prey  to  the  wildest  confusion. 
The  streets  were  crowded  with  soldiers,  many  of  whom 
riad  cast  away  their  arms,  and  now,  regardless  of  author- 
ity, sought  only  for  food  and  for  shelter  from  the  with- 
ering fire  of  the  German  guns.  Through  these  crowds 
mounted  men  and  panic-stricken  wagoners  forced  their 
desperate  way,  heedless  of  the  wretches  whom  they 
trampled  down.  Loud  imprecations  rose  on  every  side 
against  the  leaders  who  were  responsible  for  these  disas- 
trous results.  And  over  all  rose  the  thunder  of  the 
German  guns,  which,  converging  their  fire  upon  Sedan, 
sent  an  incessant  storm  of  shell  among  the  discomfited 
troops.  The  miserable  Emperor,  worn  by  fatigue  and 
sorrow  and  physical  pain,  had  vainly  exposed  himself, 
seeking  death  in  the  midst  of  his  soldiers.  Now  he 
ordered  a  flag  of  truce  to  be  hung  out;  he  surrendered 
himself  to  the  King,  and  sent  General  Wimpffen  to  make 

what  terms  he  could  for  the  army. 
Voi,.  2 — 22 


33S  MODERN  EUROPE 

The  German  chiefs  were  all  before  Sedan.  The 
King,  his  son,  the  Crown  Prince,  Count  Bismarck, 
Count  von  Moltke,  Von  Roon,  the  Minister  of  War,  were 
present  to  drink  the  delight  of  this  marvelous  triumph. 
Late  at  night  the  General  of  the  defeated  French  met 
at  Donchery  with  the  officers  empowered  by  the  King 
to  negotiate.  He  plead  earnestly  that  his  beaten  sol- 
diers should  be  allowed  to  pass  the  Belgian  frontier — 
only  seven  miles  away — and  there  be  disarmed.  Gen- 
erous terms,  he  said,  would  awaken  the  gratitude  of 
France.  Rather  than  submit  to  the  disgrace,  he  would 
renew  the  fight,  and  Germany  would  be  guilty  of  blood 
which  would  be  vainly  shed.  Count  Moltke  showed 
him  that  80,000  Frenchmen,  with  food  for  only  twenty- 
four  hours,  were  surrounded  by  240,000  Germans,  and 
under  fire  of  500  guns,  which  would  utterly  destroy  them 
in  a  few  hours;  and  that  the  suggestion  of  renewing 
the  fight  need  not,  therefore,  be  discussed.  Bismarck 
treated  contemptuously  the  idea  of  National  gratitude, 
and  intimated,  with  perfect  frankness,  that,  having 
France  now  in  their  power,  they  intended  to  provide 
for  their  future  security.  With  much  reluctance  Gen- 
eral Wimpffen  consented  to  an  unconditional  surrender, 
and  83,000  Frenchmen  laid  down  their  arms.  No  such 
shame  had  ever  before  fallen  on  the  arms  of  France. 

The  King  of  Prussia,  accompanied  by  his  son,  came 
to  visit  the  fallen  and  captive  Emperor.  The  two  mon- 
archs  met  last  in  Paris  three  years  before.  The  King 
came  then  as  the  Emperor's  guest  during  the  Paris  Exhi- 
bition, when  Napoleon,  at  the  pinnacle  of  human  great- 
ness, received  all  the  crowned  and  otherwise  illustrious 
persons  of  Europe.  The  altered  circumstances  were  re- 
ferred to  in  sympathizing  terms  by  the  conqueror,  and 
good-naturedly  attributed  to  imprudent  advice.  A  cas- 


FALL  OF  THE  SECOND  EMPIRE  339 

tie  in  Germany  was  assigned  as  a  place  of  residence  for 
the  Emperor  who  now  finally  disappears  from  history. 

And  now  the  way  to  Paris  was  cleared  of  every 
obstacle,  and  the  Germans  without  loss  of  time  began 
their  march  on  the  capital.  So  soon  as  the  disaster  of 
Sedan  was  known  there  the  Parisians  deposed  the 
Emperor  and  erected  a  Republic  (September  4,  1870). 
The  new  Government  determined  upon  a  strenuous 
defense.  The  Germans  completely  surrounded  the  city, 
and  effectively  cut  off  communication  with  the  world 
outside.  They  did  not  .inflict  the  horrors  of  bombard- 
ment, and  were  contented  to  wait  till  famine  compelled 
surrender.  During  four  months,  from  September  19, 
1870,  to  January  30,  1871,  the  Parisians  endured  the 
miseries  of  partial  starvation — consuming  animals  whose 
flesh  they  loathed;  maintaining  postal  communication 
with  the  world  by  the  aid  of  the  balloons.  At  length 
endurance  reached  its  limit;  Paris  was  given  over  to  the 
enemies  of  France;  the  humbled  Parisians  looked  on 
while  the  countless  hosts  of  Germany,  entering  by  the 
Arc  de  Triomphe,  marched  in  triumph  down  the  mag- 
nificent avenue  which  leads  to  the  Tuileries,  and  pos- 
sessed themselves  of  the  city. 

During  the  siege  the  King  had  occupied  the  palace 
of  Versailles.  The  divisions  of  Germany  were  now 
healed;  the  last  obstacle  to  the  long-desired  unity  of  the 
race  was  now  overcome.  For  ages  it  had  been  the 
policy  of  France  to  maintain  the  divisions  which  kept 
her  neighbors  weak.  So  complete  was  her  discomfiture 
that  the  union  of  all  the  German  States  was  consum- 
mated in  a  French  palace  by  the  coronation  of  King 
William  as  the  first  Emperor  of  united  Germany 
(January  18,  1871). 

The  terms  exacted  by  the  conquerors  expressed  with 


340  MODERN  EUROPE 

terrible  although  not  unreasonable  severity  the  woe 
which  waits  upon  the  vanquished.  Germany  took  back 
Alsace  and  Lorraine,  once  her  own,  and  still,  after  the 
Centuries  of  separation  retaining  their  use  of  her  lan- 
guage. She  demanded  an  indemnity  of  $1,000,000,000 
in  reimbursement  of  the  charges  to  which  France  had 
unjustifiably  put  her.  A  German  army  would  remain  on 
French  territory,  upheld  at  French  expense,  till  this 
huge  claim  was  fully  met.  The  entire  cost  of  the  war 
to  France,  apart  from  the  destruction  to  property  and 
injury  to  commerce,  was  nearly  $2,000,000,000,  and  in 
loss  of  men,  350,000. 


THE    GERMAN    EMPIRE 

France  had  made  war  in  order  to  undo  the  work  of 
partial  union  of  Germany  effected  by  Prussia  in  1866. 
It  achieved  the  opposite  result,  for  King  William 
returned  from  the  war  Emperor  of  a  united  and  satisfied 
Germany.  The  German  Empire  had  been  formed, 
realizing  Bismarck's  long  cherished  dream.  The  troops 
of  South  Germany  (Bavaria,  Wurtemberg,  and  Baden, 
and  those  of  the  semi-independent  Kingdom  of  Saxony) 
had  fought  side  by  side  with  those  of  Prussia,  and  the 
States  confederated  with  her  in  a  contest  of  triumphant 
success  against  her  ancient  foe.  By  the  genius  of  Von 
Moltke  and  Bismarck,  the  long  deferred  vengeance  due 
for  Centuries  of  French  aggression  had  been  exacted 
with  terrible  completeness.  Even  during  the  progress 
of  the  war  the  German  States  awoke  to  a  realization  of 
the  genius  of  Prussia  and  the  dependence  which  must  be 
placed  upon  that  Kingdom  for  the  maintenance  of  Ger- 
man integrity.  Immediately  after  the  victory  of  Worth 
the  crown  Prince  had  seen  that  the  time  had  come  for 
abolishing  the  line  of  division  that  severed  southern  Ger- 
many from  the  Federation  of  the  North.  A  strong  de- 
sire for  a  closer  union  had  arisen,  and  after  the  battle 
of  Sedan  (September  2,  1870)  negotiations  were  opened 
with  each  of  the  southern  States  for  its  entry  into  the 
northern  confederation.  Bavaria  alone  raised  serious 
objection  and  demanded  terms  to  which  the  Prussian 
Government  would  not  consent.  Bismarck  refrained 
from  exercising  pressure  at  Munich,  but  invited  the  sev- 
eral Governments  to  send  representatives  to  Versailles 

341 


342  MODERN  EUROPE 

for  the  purpose  of  arriving  at  a  settlement.  For  a 
moment  the  court  of  Munich  drew  the  Sovereign  of 
Wurtemburg  to  its  side,  and  orders  were  sent  to  the 
envoys  of  Wurtemburg  to  act  with  the  Bavarians  in 
refusing  to  sign  the  treaty  projected  by  Bismarck.  The 
Wurtemburg  Ministers  thereupon  tendered  their  resig- 
nations; Baden  and  Hesse-Darmstadt  signed  the  treaty 
and  the  two  dissentient  Kings  saw  themselves  on  the 
point  of  being  excluded  from  united  Germany.  They 
withdrew  their  opposition  and  at  the  end  of  November 
the  treaties  uniting  all  of  the  southern  States  with  the 
existing  confederation  were  executed,  Bavaria  retaining 
larger  separate  rights  than  were  accorded  to  any  other 
member  of  the  union. 

In  the  acts  which  thus  gave  to  Germany  political 
.cohesion  there  was  nothing  that  altered  the  title  of  its 
chief.  Bismarck  insisted  that  William  should  be  given 
imperial  dignity,  and,  early  in  1871,.  when  the  complete 
victory  of  Germany  seemed  assured,  it  was  resolved  to 
signalize  the  triumphant  Commander-in-Chief  of  the 
German  forces  in  a  way  that  should  declare  him  to  the 
world  and  record  him  in  history  as  the  head  of  an  amal- 
gamated German  Nation.  On  the  i8th  of  January,  amid 
the  cheers  of  the  assembled  German  chiefs  and  the  repre- 
sentatives of  its  army  assembled  in  the  Hall  of  Mirrors 
at  Versailles,  King  William  was  proclaimed  and  hailed 
as  German  Emperor.  Thus  the  divisions  which  had 
enfeebled  and  wasted  the  German  Nation  were  can- 
celed. Germany,  which  had  been  little  more  than  a 
geographical  expression,  was  raised  to  the  position 
which  her  strength  and  intelligence  entitled  her  to 
claim.  She  was  supreme  in  Central  Europe,  and  dis- 
cerning men  everywhere  recognized  in  the  greatness  of 
this  peace-loving  and  industrious  people  a  new  guar- 


THE  GERMAN  EMPIRE  343 

antee  that  the  tranquillity  of  Europe  would  not  in  the 
future  be  so  lightly  disturbed  as  in  the  past. 

The  Emperor  came  back  to  Berlin  and  the  first  Diet 
of  the  restored  Empire — tnat  symbol  of  United  Nation- 
hood— was  opened.  Bismarck  naturally  became  the 
Imperial  Chancellor  and  was  created  a  Prince  on  the 
conclusion  of  the  war.  The  new  German  Empire  repre- 
sented in  this  Diet  was  composed  of  twenty-five  States 
and  one  Reichsland  ("imperial  territory"  or  "district") — 
Alsace-Lorraine.  The  States  include  four  Kingdoms 
(Prussia,  Bavaria,  Wiirtemburg,  Saxony);  six  Grand- 
Duchies,  five  Duchies,  seven  Principalities,  and  three 
free  towns  (Hamburg,  Liibeck,  Bremen).  The  legislative 
functions  are  vested  in  a  Bundesrath  (Federal  Council) 
of  fifty-nine  members  appointed  for  each  session  by  the 
Governments  of  the  individual  States,  and  a  Reichstag 
(Parliament  or  Diet  of  the  Realm)  of  397  members, 
elected  by  universal  suffrage  and  by  ballot  for  three 
years,  representing  the  German  Nation. 

Under  Prince  Bismarck's  energetic  and  skillful 
leadership,  the  attention  of  the  new* German  Empire 
was  mainly  devoted  to  the  settlement  of  internal  ques- 
tions. Almost  at  once  it  found  itself  involved  in  the 
ecclesiastical  contest  with  the  Church  of  Rome,  known 
as  the  Kultur-Kampf,  which  had  previously  begun  in 
Prussia.  The  origin  of  the  struggle  was  an  effort  to 
vindicate  the  right  of  the  State  to  interfere  somewhat 
intimately,  with  the  behavior,  appointments  and  even 
educational  affairs  of  all  the  religions  societies  in  the 
country.  The  Jesuits  were  expelled  in  1872  and  Pope 
Pius  IX  retorted  by  declining  to  receive  the  German 
Ambassador.  In  1873,  in  the  month  of  May,  Herr 
Falk,  at  Bismarck's  dictation,  brought  forward  and  car- 
ried in  the  Reichstag,  what  are  known  as  the  May  Laws, 


344  MODERN  EUROPE 

the  repeal  of  which  was  the  one  task  of  the  Center  party 
in  the  Reichstag,  from  that  time  forth.  These  May 
Laws  made  the  discharge  and  exile  of  bishops  legal, 
when  they  acted  against  the  decrees  of  the  existing  Gov- 
ernment. They  made  it  obligatory  that  every  bishop 
be  educated  in  a  gymnasium,  according  to  the  regular 
German  system,  and  they  established  an  imperial  court 
for  the  settlement  of  ecclesiastical  difficulties.  This  last 
virtually  took  the  decision  in  religious  matters  away  from 
the  Church  into  the  hands  of  the  State.  In  1874  a  sup- 
plementary law  making  it  criminal  for  bishops  who  had 
been  dismissed  to  persist  in  exercising  their  former 
prerogatives  was  added  to  the  list.  After  the  laws  of 
1873  the  Catholic  clergy,  at  the  decree  of  the  Pope, 
had  gone  on  with  their  work  as  before.  Finally,  in 
1875  (January  25),  a  law  was  carried  through  the 
Reichstag  establishing  civil  as  well  as  religious  marriage. 
The  Pope  issued  an  encyclical  declaring  the  Falk  laws 
invalid  and  matters  seemed  for  a  time  to  be  at  a  dead- 
lock. On  the  election  of  the  new  Pope,  Leo  XIII 
(in  1878),  attempts  were  made  to  arrange  a  compromise 
between  the  Empire  and  the  Papal  See.  Falk,  the  Prus- 
sian Kultus  Minister,  resigned  in  1879,  and  certain  modi- 
fications were  made  in  the  obnoxious  laws  in  1881  and 
1883.  Bismarck  took  a  firmer  step  toward  concilia- 
tion when  he  proposed  the  Pope  as  arbiter  between  Ger- 
many and  Spain  in  the  dispute  as  to  the  possession  of 
the  Caroline  Islands,  and  he  practically  owned  himself 
beaten  in  the  concessions  which  he  granted  in  revisions 
of  the  politico-ecclesiastical  legislation  in  1886  and  1887. 
In  1893  the  decree  of  expulsion  against  the  Jesuits  was 
repealed.  Another  semi-religious  difficulty  which  de- 
manded Government  interference  was  the  social  perse- 
cution of  the  Jews,  which  reached  a  climax  in  1881. 


THE  GERMAN  EMPIRE  345 

These  concessions  to  the  clericals  were  due  largely 
to  the  political  sagacity  of  Windhorst,  their  leader,  who 
cleverly  maintained  a  balance  of  power  between  the  Con- 
servatives, or  supporters  of  the  Government  party,  and 
the  Socialists,  whose  aid  had  at  first  been  evoked  by  Bis- 
marck to  secure  the  passage  of  the  Falk  laws.  Bismarck 
had  been  a  friend  of  La  Salle,  and  himself  carried  out 
State  Socialistic  theories.  The  doctrines  preached  by 
the  Socialists  found  good  soil  in  the  students  of  the 
universities,  and  the  party  increased  rapidly  in  power. 
Two  attempts  on  the  Emperor's  life  in  May  and  June, 
1878,  were  attributed  more  or  less  directly  (probably 
unjustly)  to  the  social  democratic  organization,  and  gave 
the  signal  for  legislative  measures  conferring  very  ex- 
tensive powers  upon  the  administration  to  be  used  in 
suppressing  the  influence  of  Socialism.  These  Socialist 
laws,  though  limited  in  duration,  have  invariably  been 
renewed,  sometimes  with  additional  severity,  before 
their  validity  expired.  In  1889  several  of  the  most 
important  towns  in  the  Empire  were  in  what  is  called  the 
"minor  state  of  seige,"  for  police  purposes,  and  a  new 
Socialist  law  was  carried  which  remained  in  force  until 
October,  1890.  A  plot,  happily  futile,  to  blow  up  the 
Emperor  and  other  German  rulers  in  the  Niederwald  in 
1883  was  considered  by  the  Government  to  justify  its 
repressive  measures.  Prince  Bismarck,  however,  was 
not  content  with  repressive  measures,  he  endeavored,  by 
improving  the  condition  of  the  working-classes,  to  cut 
the  ground  from  beneath  the  feet  of  the  Socialistic 
propagandists.  The  acknowledgment  in  the  Emperor's 
message  to  the  Reichstag  in  1881,  that  the  working 
classes  have  a  right  to  be  considered  by  the  State  was 
followed  by  laws  compelling  employers  to  insure  their 
workmen  in  case  of  sickness,  and  by  the  establishment 


346  MODERN  EUROPE 

(1888)  of  compulsory  insurance  for  workmen  against 
death  and  old  age.  Yet  in  spite  of  these  measures 
Socialism  has  constantly  increased  in  Germany,  and  the 
Socialists  in  1898  polled  2,200,000  votes  in  a  total  vote 
of  7,600,000,  being  by  far  a  larger  vote  than  that  of  any 
other  of  the  numerous  political  parties. 

The  Emperor,  William  I,  died  March  9,  1888.  His 
son  Frederick,  at  that  time  suffering  from  a  cancerous 
throat,  was  expected  to  begin  a  liberal  policy,  but  he 
died  on  June  I5th  of  the  same  year,  being  succeeded  by 
his  son  William  II.  The  new  Emperor  was  trained  in 
the  school  of  divine  right,  and  has  endeavored  to  enforce 
these  ideas  on  Germany.  At  the  very  outset  of  his 
reign  he  had  a  difference  with  Bismarck  on  proposed 
schemes  for  the  extension  of  State  Socialism  as  conces- 
sions to  the  working  classes,  and  (March  20,  1890)  Bis- 
marck was  forced  to  retire.  Since  then  the  young 
Kaiser  has  ruled  with  an  iron  hand  and  has  shown  him- 
self reactionary  in  spirit.  Repressive  measures  have 
been  enforced  to  a  greater  extent  than  ever.  Recalci- 
trant members  of  the  Reichstag  have  been  imprisoned, 
and  by  means  of  inducements  of  various  sorts,  with  the 
support  of  the  clerical  party  which  has  thus  increased 
its  influence,  he  has  subordinated  the  position  of  the 
Parliament,  which  has  been  forced  to  give  way  whenever 
in  opposition  to  his  measures  as  in  the  case  of  the  in- 
crease of  the  army  in  1893  and  of  the  navy  in  1898. 
At  the  opening  of  Parliament  in  1899  it  was  found  that 
the  Emperor  was  supreme  and  the  Reichstag  had  been 
tamed. 

Emperor  William,  during  his  reign,  has  embarked 
with  energy  in  the  colonial  policy  which  was  inaugurated 
by  Bismarck  in  1884.  Important  extensions  of  Ger- 


THE  GERMAN  EMPIRE  347 

man  colonies  in  East  Africa  have  been  made  and  the 
Emperor  (in  1898)  gained  Kiao-Chou  in  China. 

No  foreign  wars  have  been  engaged  in  by  Germany 
since  1871.  But  the  army  has  been  maintained  to  great 
strength,  by  the  system  of  compulsory  military  service 
and  a  navy  has  been  built.  Yet  in  foreign  politics  Ger- 
many has  played  a  leading  part.  It  was  Bismarck  who 
formed  the  League  of  the  Three  Emperors  in  1871  by 
which  the  Czar,  Franz  Joseph,  and  Emperor  William.  I 
made  an  alliance.  When  this  fell  in  1877,  upon  Russia's 
engaging  in  war  in  behalf  of  the  Bulgarians,  Bismarck 
formed  the  triple  alliance  (1879),  about  which  only  the 
principal  facts  and  not  all  the  details  are  known.  It  .is 
an  agreement  for  mutual  defense  in  case  of  attack,  and 
the  parties  to  it  are  Germany,  Austria-Hungary,  and 
Italy.  Bismarck's  revelations  in  1896  betrayed  the  fact 
that  from  1887  to  1890  Germany  had  .a  secret  agreement 
with  Russia  along  the  same  lines,  the  result  of  which 
would  have  been  disastrous  to  Austria  had  there  been 
war  in  the  interval. 


THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC. 

The  history  of  France  has  been  stormy  since  the  Ger- 
mans captured  Paris.  Her  misfortunes  did  not  end  with 
the  fall  of  the  capital,  and  the  loss  of  her  border  prov- 
inces. It  is  part  of  the  normal  order  of  French  history 
that  when  an  established  government  is  overthrown  and 
another  is  set  in  its  place,  this  second  government  is  in 
its  turn  attacked  by  insurrection  in  Paris,  and  an  effort 
is  made  to  establish  the  rule  of  the  democracy  of  the 
capital  itself,  or  of  those  who  for  the  moment  pass  for 
its  leaders.  It  was  so  in  1793,  in  1831,  in  1848;  and  it 
was  so  again  in  1870.  Favre,  Trochet,  and  the  other 
members  of  the  Government  of  Vincennes  assumed 
power  on  the  downfall  of  Napoleon  III,  because  they 
considered  themselves  the  individuals  best  fitted  to  serve 
the  State.  There  were  hundreds  of  other  persons  in 
Paris  who  had  exactly  the  same  opinion  of  themselves. 
And  when,  with  the  progress  of  the  seige,  the  Govern- 
ment of  defense  lost  its  popularity  and  service,  it  was 
natural  that  ambitious  and  impatient  men  of  a  lower 
political  rank  should  consider  it  time  to  try  whether 
Paris  could  not  make  a  better  defense  under  their  own 
auspices.  Attempts  were  made  before  the  end  of  Octo- 
ber, 1871,  to  overthrow  the  Government.  They  were 
repeated  at  intervals,  but  without  success.  The  agita- 
tion, however,  continued  with  the  ranks  of  the  National 
Guard,  which,  unlike  the  National  Guard  in  the  time 
of  Louis  XV,  now  included  the  masses  of  the  working 
class,  and  was  the  most  dangerous  enemy,  instead  of  the 
support  of  Government. 

348 


THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC  349 

The  capitulation  of  Paris  brought  things  to  a  crisis. 
Favre  had  declared  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  dis- 
arm the  National  Guard  without  a  battle  in  the  streets. 
At  his  instance  Bismarck  allowed  the  National  Guard  to 
retain  their  weapons  and  the  fears  of  the  Government 
itself  thus  prepared  the  way  for  successful  insurrection. 
When  the  Germans  were  about  to  occupy  western  Paris, 
the  National  Guard  drew  off  its  artillery  to  Montmartre 
and  there  erected  intrenchments.  During  the  next 
fortnight,  while  the  Germans  were  withdrawing  from 
the  western  forts  in  accordance  with  the  conditions  of 
peace,  the  Government  and  the  National  Guard  stood 
facing  one  another  in  inaction.  On  the  i8th  of  March 
General  Lecomte  was  ordered  to  seize  the  artillery 
parked  at  Montmartre.  His  troops,  surrounded  and 
solicited  by  the  National  Guard,  abandoned  their  Com- 
mander. Lecomte  was  seized  and  with  General  Cle- 
ment Thomas  was  put  to  death.  A  revolutionary  cen- 
tral committee  took  possession  of  the  Hotel  de  Ville. 
The  troops  still  remaining  faithful  to  the  Government 
were  withdrawn  to  Versailles,  where  Thiers  had 
assembled  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  Not  only  Paris 
itself,  but  the  western  forts,  with  the  exception  of  Mont 
Valerien,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  insurgents.  On  the 
26th  of  March  elections  were  held  for  the  Commune. 
The  majority  of  peaceful  citizen's  abstained  from  voting. 
A  council  was  elected  which,  by  the  side  of  certain 
harmless  and  well-meaning  men,  contained  a  troop  of 
revolutionists  by  profession;  and  after  the  failure  of  all 
attempts  at  conciliation,  hostilities  begun  between  Paris 
and  Versailles. 

There  were  in  the  ranks  of  those  who  fought  for  the 
Commune  some  who  fought  in  the  sincere  belief  that 
their  cause  was  that  of  municipal  freedom.  There  were 


350  MODERN  EUROPE 

others  who  believed,  and  with  good  reason,  that  the 
existence  of  the  Republic  was  threatened  by  a  reaction- 
ary assembly  at  Versailles.  But  the  movement  was  on 
the  whole  the  work  of  fanatics  who  sought  to  subvert 
every  authority  but  their  own.  And  the  unfortunate 
mob  which  followed  them — in  so  far  as  they  fought  for 
anything  beyond  the  daily  pay  which  had  been  their  only 
means  of  sustenance  since  the  siege  began — fought  for 
they  knew  not  what.  As  the  conflict  was  prolonged  it 
took  on  both  sides  a  character  of  atrocious  violence  and 
cruelty.  The  Murder  of  Generals  Lecomte  and  Thomas 
at  the  outset  was  avenged  by  the  execution  of  some  of 
the  first  prisoners  taken  by  the  troops  at  Versailles. 
Then  hostages  were  seized  by  the  Commune.  The 
slaughter  in  cold  blood  of  300  National  Guards,  sur- 
prised at  Clermont  by  the  besiegers,  gave  to  the  Pari- 
sians an  example  of  massacre.  When,  after  a  siege  of 
six  weeks  in  which  Paris  suffered  far  more  severely  than 
it  had  suffered  from  the  cannonade  of  the  Germans,  the 
troops  at  Versailles  at  length  made  their  way  into  the 
capital  humanity  and  civilization  seemed  to  have  van- 
ished in  the  orgies  of  devils.  The  defenders  of  the 
city,  as  they  fell  back,  murdered  their  hostages  and  left 
behind  them  palaces,  museums — the  entire  public 
inheritance  of  the  Nation  in  its  capital — in  flames.  The 
conquerors  during  several  days  shot  down  all  whom  they 
took  fighting,  and  in  many  cases  put  to  death  whole 
bands  of  prisoners  without  distinction.  The  temper  of 
the  army  was  such  that  the  Government,  even  if  it  had 
desired,  could  not  have  mitigated  the  terrors  of  this 
vengeance;  but  there  was  little  sign  anywhere  of  an 
inclination  to  mercy.  Court  martials  and  executions 
continued  long  after  the  heat  of  combat  was  over.  A 
year  passed  and  the  tribunals  were  still  busy  with  their 


THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC  351 

work.  Above  ten  thousand  persons  were  sentenced  to 
transportation  or  imprisonment  before  justice  was  sat- 
isfied. 

Since  1790  France  has  had  seventeen  constitutions  of 
almost  every  imaginable  variety.  But  the  Third  Repub- 
lic (proclaimed  in  Paris  by  Gambetta,  September  4, 
1870)  has  had  the  longest  life  of  any  Government  during 
that  period.  As  long  as  the  war  lasted  the  country  was 
ruled  by  the  self-elected  Government  of  the  National 
Defense.  When  the  war  was  over  a  National  Assembly 
with  indefinite  powers  was  chosen  by  universal  suffrage. 
Thiers,  the  historian  and  former  Minister  of  this  body, 
was  the  member  of  this  body  who  commanded  the  most 
general  public  confidence,  and  the  assembly  intrusted 
the  executive  to  him  without,  however,  fixing  any  term 
for  the  duration  of  the  office.  It  was  as  the  agent  of  this 
assembly  that  Thiers  acted.  He  had  great  difficulty  in 
persuading  his  colleagues  of  the  Assembly,  and  his  coun- 
trymen generally,  to  agree  to  peace  on  terms  that  were 
practically  dictated  by  Germany.  But  he  succeeded; 
peace  was  voted  March  I,  1871.  No  sooner  had  he 
accomplished  his  task  than  he  was  face  to  face  with  the 
sanguinary  madness  of  the  Commune.  But  this  diffi- 
culty, also,  he  set  himself  to  surmount.  With  charac- 
teristic energy  he  succeeded,  and  the  seat  of  Govern- 
ment was  once  more  removed  from  Versailles  to  Paris. 
Thiers  was  formally  elected  (August  31)  President  of  the 
French  Republic.  He  held  office  only  until  1873,  but 
during  this  period  probably  he  was  mainly  instrumental 
in  securing  the  withdrawal  of  the  Germans  from  France 
and  the  payment  of  the  war  indemnity  and  in  placing 
both  the  army  and  the  civil  service  on  a  more  satisfac- 
tory footing.  But  in  course  of  time  the  gratitude  of  the 
country  exhausted  itself  and  Thiers,  who  was  old-fash- 


352  MODERN  EUROPE 

ioned  in  many  of  his  opinions  and  as  opinionated  as  he 
was  old-fashioned,  did  not  make  any  new  friends.  He 
was  especially  detested  by  the  Extreme  Left,  whose  chief, 
Gambetta,  he  styled  Fou-furieux  (furious  fool).  As  a 
result  a  coalition  of  reactionaries  and  radicals  under  the 
leadership  of  MacMahon  was  formed  expressly,  as  it 
seemed,  to  harass  him;  and  even  in  the  beginning  of 
1872  he  tendered  his  resignation.  It  was  not  accepted, 
and  his  opponents  for  a  time  suspended  their  intrigues. 
They  were  revived,  however,  in  1873,  and  resolved  them- 
selves into  a  resolute  effort  to  limit  the  powers  of  the 
President.  This  Thiers  stoutly  resisted,  and  he  made 
an  appeal  to  the  electors,  but  this  course  did  not  increase 
the  strength  of  his  following.  Finally,  what  he  inter- 
preted as  a  vote  of  no  confidence  was  carried  (May  24, 
1873)  by  a  majority  of  sixteen.  He  resigned  and  his 
place  was  taken  by  Marshal  MacMahon. 

MacMahon  was  a  general  rather  than  a  statesman, 
and  unlike  Thiers,  he  was  not  a  member  of  the  Assembly. 
He  was  elected  by  the  support  of  the  Monarchists — 
Orleanists,  Bonapartists  and  Bourbons,  who  were  in  a 
majority  in  the  assembly;  and  there  is  good  reason  for 
the  popular  belief  that  he  was  preparing  for  a  time  when 
by  a  coup  d'etat  the  monarchy  might  be  restored. 
But  the  rival  Monarchists  strove  against  each  other. 
Although  at  one  time  it  seemed  not  impossible  that  the 
Comte  de  Chambord,  the  Bourbon,  might  become  King, 
and  negotiations  were  opened  for  the  purpose  on  a  basis 
of  agreement  by  which  the  Orleanists  were  to  succeed 
him  on  the  throne,  the  negotiations  came  to  naught 
because  of  the  obstinacy  of  the  Comte,  who,  true  scion 
of  h'is  race,  refused  to  yield  one  jot  of  his  pretensions. 
He  refused  to  accept  the  tri-color  as  his  flag,  and  the 
royalists  abandoned  hope.  Then  they  set  themselves  to 


THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC  353 

the  work  of  forming-  a  constitution  which  was  purposely 
formed  so  that  it  might  be  the  basis  of  a  constitutional 
monarchy  and  make  easy  a  coup  d'etat.  It  was  only 
by  a  majority  of  one  (January  30,  1875)  that  the  Repub- 
lic was  finally  recognized  as  the  definite  government  of 
France. 

MacMahon's  term  had  been  fixed  at  seven  years 
(November  19,  1873),  but  he  did  not  serve  the  full  term. 
The  general  election  held  (1877)  in  virtue  of  the  con- 
stitution showed  that  France  was  now  in  favor  of  a 
parliamentary  republic.  The  Republican  majority 
refused  to  vote  supplies,  and,  after  a  brief  period  of  con- 
test in  which  he  tried  repression  and  then  conciliation, 
the  Marshal  decided  that  as  a  choice  in  Gambetta's 
famous  alternative,  "Submit  or  resign,"  he  would  take 
the  latter,  and  he  resigned  (January  30,  1879),  Jules 
Grevy,  an  out  and  out  Republican,  succeeding  to  his 
place. 

Grevy  was  succeeded  by  Gambetta  as  President  of 
the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  and  the  ardent  Republican 
was  the  real  ruler  of  the  Republic.  Under  his  leadership 
various  measures  of  doubtful  expediency  were  instituted. 
The  Communards  were  amnestied.  The  schools  and 
convents  of  the  Jesuits  were  suppressed  while  public 
education  was  removed  from  control  of  the  Catholics, 
thus  arousing  the  enmity  of  the  ultramontanists.  The 
fourteenth  of  July,  the  anniversary  of  the  fall  of  the  Bas- 
tille, was  made  a  National  holiday.  These  measures, 
together  with  the  war  with  the  Tunis — which  did  little 
to  add  to  the  glory  of  France  and  consumed  an  enor- 
mous amount  of  money — caused  the  fall  of  several  Minis- 
ters in  quick  succession,  one  of  the  Premiers  being 
Gambetta  himself.  His  death  (1882),  together  with  the 
distrust  of  the  peasant  proprietors,  (the  true  conserva- 

VOI,.  2 — 23 


354  MODERN  EUROPE 

tive  power  in  France),  made  the  Monarchists  believe  that 
the  time  had  come  for  a  restoration.  Divided  as  before 
between  three  dynasties,  they  were  unable  to  bring  about 
a  revolution,  although  they  succeeded  in  defeating  a  bill 
to  banish  all  heirs  and  pretenders  to  the  throne.  The 
Chinese  war  (1884)  and  the  Madagascar  Expedition 
gained  territory,  but  at  a  frightful  loss  of  blood  and 
treasure,  Ministries  rose  and  fell.  Although  Grevy  had 
been  reflected  on  the  expiration  of  his  term,  a  nasty 
scandal  involving  his  son-in-law,  Wilson,  who  sold  deco- 
rations and  appointments  in  the  army,  was  the  direct 
cause  of  his  resignation  (December  2,  1887).  There 
had  been  no  suspicion  of  Grevy's  personal  probity  until 
his  interference  to  protect  his  son-in-law  from  justice 
aroused  France.  Marie  Frangois  Sadi  Carnot  became 
President  of  the  Republic. 

It  was  about  this  time  that  republican  institutions 
seemed  to  be  in  danger  by  the  extraordinary  popular 
support  which  General  Boulanger  secured  for  a 
moment  and  which  seemed  to  be  along  the  pathway 
which  in  France  led  to  a  dictatorship.  Until  1886 
Boulanger  was  a  man  without  national  reputation  other 
than  that  of  any  able  General  of  the  French  Army. 
Appointed  Minister  of  War  in  Brisson's  Cabinet,  he  won 
great  personal  popularity  by  his  patriotic  utterances  and 
the  reforms  he  introduced  in  the  treatment  of  the 
privates  and  non-commissioned  officers.  Too  powerful 
for  the  Government's  safety,  he  was  placed  on  the  retired 
list  for  insubordination.  This  still  further  increased  his 
popularity,  and  he  was  elected  to  the  Chamber  of  Depu- 
ties from  several  departments  in  by-elections,  the  depart- 
ment of  du  Nord  giving  him  100,000  majority.  He  at 
once  became  the  leader  of  the  opposition  to  the  Gov- 
ernment, and  moved  a  dissolution  of  the  Chamber;  this 


THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC  355 

resolution  being  rejected  and  a  vote  of  censure  being 
passed  upon  him,  he  resigned.  Then  he  was  reflected, 
securing  500,000  votes  by  letting  his  name  be  presented 
in  a  large  number  of  districts.  There  was  no  doubt  that 
Boulanger  was  conspiring  for  the  overthrow  of  the 
Republic,  and  by  a  resolution  adopted  April  4,  1889,  the 
French  Chamber  decided  to  prosecute  him.  After  a 
trial  in  which  Quesnay  de  Beaurepaire  acted  as  prosecut- 
ing attorney,  Boulanger,  with  Count  Dillon  and  Henri 
Rochefort,  were  convicted  of  conspiracy  and  attempted 
treason.  They  were  condemned  to  transportation  and 
imprisonment  in  a  fortified  place,  but  Boulanger  escaped 
to  England.  His  flight,  and  the  revelation  that  he  had 
received  3,000,000  francs  from  the  Orleanists,  shattered 
his  popularity.  Paris  laughed  at  its  former  idol  who, 
unable  to  stand  the  ridicule  and  ignominy  he  had  earned, 
committed  suicide  September  30,  1891. 

Six  months  before  the  expiration  of  the  term  for 
which  Sadi  Carnot  had  been  elected  President  he  was 
assassinated  (June  24,  1894).  An  Italian  anarchist 
stabbed  him  at  Lyons  while  he  was  driving  in  a  carriage 
through  the  streets.  During  his  administration  evi- 
dences of  the  corruption  prevalent  in  French  official  life 
multiplied.  The  failure  of  the  Panama  scheme  led  to 
the  prosecution  of  Count  de  Lesseps  and  his  son  and  of- 
Gustave  Eiffel,  and  of  many  politicians  and  ex-Ministers, 
some  of  whom  were  convicted  of  bribery  and  corruption 
(January,  1893).  M.  Baihut,  Minister  of  Public  Works 
in  1886,  was  proved  to  have  received  a  bribe  of  375,000 
francs.  Casmir  Perier  succeeded  Carnot  as  President 
(1894),  but  after  being  a  little  more  than  six  months  in 
office  he  was  forced  to  resign,  corruption  in  connection 
with  some  railway  franchises  having  been  proved  against 
some  of  his  friends,  whom  he  attempted  to  shield. 


356  MODERN  EUROPE 

Felix  Faure  (elected  President  January  15,  1895; 
died  of  apoplexy  February  16,  1899),  who  succeeded 
him,  was  the  first  French  ruler  since  1824  who  had  not 
been  driven  from  his  place  by  revolution,  assassination 
or*  public  opinion.  Yet  revolution  seemed  near  during 
his  whole  term  of  office,  although  it  was  prevented  after 
his  death  by  the  prompt  election  (February  17,  1899)  of 
Emile  Loubet  as  his  successor.  The  pretenders  had 
been  gathering  strength  and  preparing  to  overthrow  the 
Republic,  but  Faure's  death  was  too  sudden  for  them 
to  devise  a  coup  d'etat  and  effective  'guards  on  the  fron- 
tiers would  have  prevented  the  arrival  of  any  one  of  the 
pretenders  in  Paris. 

During  the  administration  of  President  Faure,  the 
world  learned  of  the  rottenness  of  the  French  army,  and 
evidence  multiplied  to  show  that  not  only  were  worthless 
supplies  furnished  the  army  and  navy  at  exorbitant  prices, 
but  that  French  officers  trafficked  in  State  secrets,  which 
they  sold  to  the  enemy.  These  revelations  were  due  to  the 
Dreyfus  case,  which  was  a  legacy  left  by  Faure  to  his  suc- 
cessor. Captain  Dreyfus,  a  Jewish  officer,  was  accused 
of  selling  army  secrets  and  convicted  by  secret  court- 
martial  on  what  later  seemed  to  be  insufficient  evidence. 
The  revelations  of  the  investigations  showed  that  while 
Dreyfus  had  not  sold  the  secrets  some  one  had,  and  that 
efforts  had  been  made  to  protect  the  perpetrators.  The 
chief  of  the  intelligence  bureau  committed  suicide  when 
it  became  known  that  he  was  concerned  in  forging  at  least 
a  part  of  the  papers  for  the  conviction  of  Dreyfus. 

Thus  the  French  Republic  has  had  a  stormy  time  at 
home.  Abroad  it  has  gained  no  victories,  and  France 
has  ceased  to  be  a  great  power.  The  vanity  of  the  French 
was  flattered  by  the  Franco- Russian  alliance  in  1895,  when 
France  loaned  money  to  the  Czar,  but,  in  1898,  when 


THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC  357 

France  was  on  the  point  of  war  with  Great  Britain,  over 
her  claim  to  ownership  of  territory  in  the  Soudan,  she 
found  that  her  ally  would  not  help  her.  Her  colonial 
policy  has  been  costly,  and  productive  of  more  scandals 
than  glory.  She  has  gradually  been  excluded  from  a 
place  among  the  great  Nations,  and  her  influence  at 
European  conferences  is  but  slight. 


THE   EASTERN   QUESTION 

The  present  condition  of  Turkey — within  the  last 
hundred  years  stripped  of  some  of  her  fairest  possessions, 
and  the  seat  of  her  Empire  in  the  possession  of  the  great 
powers,  and  dependent  upon  the  great  powers  for  her  very 
existence — is  a  conspicuous  example  O'f  the  mutability  of 
human  affairs.  It  seems  to  be  the  inevitable  course  of 
history  that  from  the  highest  point  of  elevation  Empires, 
sometimes  with  rapid  strides  and  again  with  steps  linger- 
ing and  slow,  shall  touch  the  lowest  point  of  depression. 
Greece  and  Rome  fell.  So  did  Chaldea,  Assyria,  Carthage, 
and  Persia.  The  close  of  the  Nineteenth  Century  finds 
Turkey  the  most  conspicuous  example  of  a  great  power, 
once  the  terror  of  the  world,  now  in  its  presence  tottering 
to  its  fall.  Her  feebleness  is  abject  and  she  is  kept  alive 
only  by  the  jealousy  of  her  neighbors.  First  by  the  influ- 
ence of  England  and  France,  who  fought  a  costly  war 
to  preserve  her  European  dominions  for  her,  and  later  by 
Germany  and  Russia.  Yet  five  Centuries  ago  the  Otto- 
man Empire's  conquering  hosts  shook  the  earth  with  their 
martial  tread.  Not  content  with  Asia,  they  essayed  to 
conquer  Europe,  and  Southern  Europe  fell  into*  their 
hands.  The  Turks  made  themselves  masters  of  a  lordly 
heritage  in  Europe  more  than  three  times  the  extent  of 
France,  with  a  delicious  climate  and  a  soil  of  wondrous 
fertility,  and  with  a  vast  seaboard.  But  the  system  of 
organized  robbery,  known  in  Europe  by  the  name  of  Turk- 
ish Government,  changed  all  this  and  converted  into  a 
wilderness  one  of  the  fairest  regions  of  the  world. 
Though  each  Century  since  the  Middle  Ages  has  seen  a 

358 


THE  EASTERN  QUESTION  359 

decrease  in  the  extent  of  the  Ottoman  Empire,  yet  the 
persecution  of  Christians,  in  accordance  with  the  doctrines 
of  the  Koran,  has  continued  ever  since,  and  these  persecu- 
tions have  been  declared  an  affair  of  no  concern  to  anyone 
but  the  Sultan  by  the  great  powers  in  turn,  and  the  Sultan 
has  been  free  to  butcher  as  many  Christians  as  he 
chooses. 

This  state  of  affairs  has  been  due  to  the  effort  to  main- 
tain what  is  known  as  the  balance  of  power  in  Europe. 
The  doctrine  of  the  diplomats  has  been  that  it  is  better 
that  a  weak  power  should  occupy  the  Mediterranean  coasts 
than  that  they  should  fall  into  the  hands  of  some  great 
power,  to  whom  they  would  be  of  great  strategetical 
importance.  The  power  which  has- seemed  most  danger- 
ous in  this  respect  is  Russia,  whose  unparalleled  rise  to 
importance  has  been  watched  with  jealous  eyes  by  the 
Western  Nations.  Russia  has  for  ages  looked  with  eyes 
of  desire  upon  Constantinople  and  the  Turkish  seaboard. 
A  prophecy  of  extreme  antiquity  foretells  the  ultimate 
accomplishment  of  her  purposes.  When  or  by  whom  it 
was  first  uttered  no  man  knows,  but  eight  Centuries  ago 
it  might  be  read  upon  an  equestrian  statue,  then  very  old, 
which  had  been  brought  to  Constantinople  from  Antioch. 
It  was  believed  for  Centuries  before  the  invasion  of  the 
Turks;  and  the  Turks  themselves  soon  learned  to  look  for- 
ward to  its  fulfillment.  In  Russia  a  powerful  national  and 
religious  sentiment  regards  the  possession  of  Constanti- 
nople, the  ancient  site  of  the  head  of  the  Eastern  Church, 
as  a  manifest  destiny  and  urges  forward  every  measure 
which  tends  to  accomplish  it.  The  Emperor  Alexander 
claimed  that  he  himself  did  not  wish  Russia  to  possess 
Constantinople,  but  it  was  inevitable;  as  well,  he  said,  try 
to  arrest  a  stream  in  its  descent  from  the  mountains.  Rus- 
sia has  omitted  no  opportunity  of  aggravating  the  dis- 


360  MODERN  EUROPE 

orders  of  the  Turkish  Empire  and  thus  hastening  its  over- 
throw. During  a  greater  part  of  the  Eighteenth  Century 
she  contrived  to  involve  the  Turks  in  perpetual  quarrel 
and  waged  against  them  frequent  and  destructive  wars. 
And  she  would  long  ago,  by  open  violence,  have  fulfilled 
the  ancient  prediction  had  not  the  jealousies  of  the  other 
European  powers  peremptorily  forbidden  this  aggrandize- 
ment. In  this  policy  the  English  Government  has  been 
the  leader,  under  Conservative  ministries.  England  has 
labored,  often  by  diplomacy  and  sometimes  by  arms,  to 
uphold  the  most  unjustifiable  despotism  which  modern 
Europe  ever  endured.  Yet  in  spite  of  these  efforts  to  pre- 
serve the  integrity  of  the  Ottoman  Empire,  it  has  dwindled 
in  extent  during  the  Nineteenth  Century.  The  Sultan's 
dominions  have  been  successively  curtailed.  The  cruel 
warfare  of  extermination  waged  against  the  Greeks  in 
their  contest  for  independence  forced  a  reluctant  English 
ministry  to  depart  from  its  traditional  policy  and  by  the 
aid  of  Russia,  France,  and  England,  the  independence  of 
Greece  was  secured  (1827). 

It  was  after  this  war,  and  as  early  as  1844,  that  the 
Emperor  Nicholas  I,  proposed  to  divide  with  Britain 
and  France  the  inheritance  of  the  "Sick  Man,"  as  he  called 
Turkey.  Nicholas,  whether  from  policy  or  from  a  sense 
of  Kingly  honor,  which  at  times  powerfully  influenced 
him,  did  not  avail  himself  of  the  prostration  of  the  con- 
tinental powers  in  1848  to  attack  Turkey.  He  detested 
revolution,  as  a  crime  against  the  divinely  ordered  subjec- 
tion of  Nations  to  their  rulers  and  probably  would  have 
felt  himself  degraded  had  he,  in  the  spirit  of  his  predeces- 
sor, Catharine,  turned  the  calamities  of  his  brother  mon- 
archs  to  his  separate  advantage.  It  accorded  better  with 
his  proud  nature,  possibly  also  with  his  schemes  of  far- 
reaching  policy,  for  Russia  to  enter  the  field  as  the  pro- 


THE  EASTERN  QUESTION  361 

tector  of  the  Hapsburgs  against  the  rebel  Hungarians  than 
for  his  armies  to  snatch  from  the  Porte  what  he  believed 
the  lapse  of  time  would  give  to  Russia,  at  no  far  distant 
date. 

But  war  over  Turkey  was  inevitable.  It  came  and 
had  a  trivial  pretext;  ostensibly  about  the  guardianship 
of  the  Holy  Places  in  Jerusalem.  The  earliest  Christian 
legends  had  been  localized  in  various  spots  around  Jeru- 
salem. These  had  been,  in  the  ages  of  faith,  the  goal  of 
constant  pilgrimages  and  in  more  recent  times  they  had 
formed  the  object  of  treaties  between  Turkey  and  France- 
Greek  monks,  however,  disputed  with  Latin  monks  for 
the  guardianship  of  the  Holy  Places  and  as  the  power  of 
Russia  grew  the  privileges  of  the  Greek  monks  had 
increased.  Practically  their  differences  were  no  more 
than  this :  that  the  Latin  monks  should  have  a  key  to  the 
great  door  of  the  church  of  Bethlehem  and  not  be  asked 
to  content  themselves  with  a  key  to  the  inferior  door;  that 
they  should  have  a  key  to  each  of  the  doors  giving  entrance 
to  the  cave  in  which  the  Nativity  was  supposed  to  have 
taken  place ;  that  they  should  have  the  privilege  of  setting 
up  in  the  same  locality  a  silver  star  bearing  the  arms  of 
France.  In  the  hands  of  diplomats,  bent  on  obtaining 
triumphs  over  one  another,  these  disputes  assumed  dimen- 
sions that  overshadowed  the  peace  of  Europe.  Russia 
was  not  only  deeply  interested  in  protecting  the  Slavonic 
races  under  the  Turkish  rule — who  were  of  the  same  blood 
as  herself — but  she  wished  to  extend  her  power  beyond 
the  Dardanelles.  A  war  was  necessary  to  the  Emperor 
of  the  French  for  the  consolidation  of  his  throne.  The 
French  and  the  Russian  ministers  at  Constantinople  alter- 
nately tormented  the  Sultan  in  the  character  of  aggrieved 
sacristans  until,  at  the  beginning  of  1852,  the  Porte  com- 
promised itself  with  both  parties  by  adjudging  to  each 


362  MODERN  EUROPE 

rights  which  it  professed  also  to  secure  to  the  other.  A 
year  more  spent  in  prevarications,  in  excuses,  and  in  men- 
aces ended  with  the  triumph  of  the  French,  with  the  eva- 
sion of  the  promises  made  by  the  Sultan  to  the  Czar,  and 
with  the  discomfiture  of  the  Greek  Church  in  the  person 
of  the  monks  who  officiated  at  the  Holy  Sepulchre  and  the 
Shrine  of  the  Nativity. 

Nicholas  treated  the  conduct  of  the  Porte  as  an  out- 
rage upon  himself.  He  insisted  that  the  rights  conceded 
to  the  Christian  population  of  Turkey  should  be  secured 
by  treaty  with  himself.  Such  an  arrangement  was  vir- 
tually a  Russian  protectorate  over  three-fourths  of  the 
Turkish  people  and  would  have  ended  the  independence 
of  Turkey.  The  Sultan,  acting  under  the  advice  of  the 
English  Ambassador,  steadfastly  refused  the  Russian  de- 
mands. France,  Austria,  and  Prussia  bestowed,  upon  the 
action  of  the  Turkish  Government,  the  support  of  their 
approval. 

The  passionate  Czar,  unable  to  effect  his  purposes  by 
diplomacy,  moved  an  army  across  the  Pruth  (July  2, 
1853)  and  possessed  himself  of  the  Danu'bian  principal- 
ities. This  invasion  imparted  to  the  question  a  graver 
aspect  than  it  had  heretofore  presented,  and  diplomacy 
hastened  to  interpose  its  good  offices.  The  four  powers, 
at  a  conference  at  Vienna,  framed  a  note  embodying  pro- 
posals which,  as  it  was  deemed,  the  estranged  Govern- 
ments might  honorably  accept.  This  note  conveyed  to  the 
Czar  assurances  that  the  ancient  privileges  of  the  Greek 
Church  in  the  Ottoman  Empire  would  be  held  sacred,  but 
it  conferred  upon  him  no  new  right  to  enforce  the  fulfill- 
ment of  the  pledge.  The  Czar  was  willing  to  accept  this 
compromise,  and  the  mediators  recommended  it  as  one 
which  ought  to  be  satisfactory  to  Turkey.  It  was  deemed 
that  the  difficulty  was  at  length  overcome,  but  to  the 


363 

amazement  of  Europe,  Turkey  refused  to  be  guided  by 
the  advice  of  her  friends.  She  would  not  accept  the 
Vienna  note  unless  certain  verbal  alterations  were 
adopted.  These  were  insignificant;  but  Russia,  having 
consented  to  the  note  in  the  original  form,  was  too  proud 
to  have  it  changed  at  the  caprice  of  a  power  which  she 
despised.  The  mediators  stood  aside.  The  Turks,  after 
vainly  summoning  the  Czar  to  withdraw  his  armies  from 
their  territory,  declared  war  (October  23,  1853)  against 
him,  with  all  the  gravity  and  dignity  of  a  power  able  to 
give  effect  to  the  hostile  purposes  which  it  announced. 
The  final  differences  between  Russia  and  Turkey  are 
scarcely  appreciable  by  the  most  searching  examination. 
Europe  was  led  into  a  bloody  war  because  Turkey  de- 
manded, and  Russia  was  too  proud  and  too  angry  to  con- 
cede certain  immaterial  variations  in  the  phraseology  of 
a  settlement  which  was  substantially  agreeable  to  both. 

Turkey  and  Russia  began  the  war  by  themselves,  and 
although  at  first  the  Turks  succeeded  in  repulsing  the  Rus- 
sians at  every  point  of  attack  along  the  Danube,  the  war, 
if  left  to  run  its  course,  could  have  had  but  one  outcome. 
After  more  fruitless  diplomacy,  Great  Britain  and  France 
agreed  to  support  Turkey  by  armed  intervention.  The 
war  thus  undertaken  lasted  two  years.  At  first  England 
and  France  stood  alone  in  their  support  of  Turkey,  but 
early  in  1855  Sardinia  boldly  joined  the  alliance  and  sent 
a  contingent  to  the  seat  of  war.  The  other  powers 
remained  neutral  throughout  the  contest.  The  plan  of 
operations  was  very  simple.  Russia  could  only  be 
attacked  in  her  extremities  and  England  could  only  act 
on  a  sea  base.  The  chief  scenes  of  operation  were  the 
Black  Sea  and  the  Baltic.  In  the  spring  of  1854  a  power- 
ful British  and  French  fleet  appeared  in  the  Gulf  of  Fin- 
land. But  the  Russian  fleet  kept  safe  behind  the  granite 


364  MODERN  EUROPE 

fortresses  of  Kronstadt  and  Sveaborg;  which,  owing  to 
shallow  water  and  difficult  navigation,  could  not  be 
attacked  by  the  large  vessels  comprising  the  allied  fleets. 
Beyond  the  blockade  the  only  thing  of  importance  effected 
was  the  destruction  of  the  fortress  of  Bomarsund,  and  the 
capture  of  the  island  on  which  it  was  situated.  The  sec- 
ond Baltic  campaign  in  1855  was  a  repetition  of  the  first. 
Sveaborg  was  bombarded,  but,  having  no  gunboats,  the 
fleet  could  only  blockade  the  Russian  coast.  The  Russian 
fleet  in  the  Black  Sea  took  refuge  in  the  fortified  harbor  of 
Sebastopol,  sinking  vessels  across  the  entrance.  On  land 
the  Turkish  forces,  under  Omar  Pasha,  had  maintained  a 
heroic  contest  on  the  Danube  against  the  Russians  during 
the  winter  of  1853-54.  The  French  and  British  troops 
sent  to  the  aid  of  the  Sultan  were  landed  chiefly  at  Varna 
(April  and  May,  1855  ) .  The  Turkish  defense  of  Silestria 
rendered  the  advance  of  the  allies  in  that  direction  unneces- 
sary. After  six  weeks'  siege  the  Russians  were  obliged 
to  retire.  The  allies,  having  suffered  great  loss  from  the 
cholera  at  Varna,  it  was  resolved  to  carry  the  war  into  the 
Crimea  and  (September  14)  an  army  of  25,000  British, 
under  Lord  Raglan;  25,000  French,  under  Marshal  St. 
Arnaud,  and  8,000  Turks  were  landed  on  the  west  coast, 
thirty  miles  north  of  Sebastopol.  They  attacked  and  de- 
feated a  Russian  army  strongly  posted  on  the  steep  heights 
above  the  river  Alma  (September  2Oth).  Then,  taking 
position  near  Balaklava,  to  the  south  of  Sebastopol,  they 
began  the  siege  of  that  place.  The  Russians  made 
repeated  attempts  to  force  the  allies'  position,  which  led 
to  the  bloody  battles  of  Balaklava  (October  25th),  and 
Inkermann  (November  5th).  Balaklava  was  mainly  a 
cavalry  action  and  did  much  more  credit  to  the  gallantry 
of  the  soldiers  than  to  their  commander's  generalship. 
It  was  memorable  for  the  glorious  "Charge  of  the  Light 


THE  EASTERN  QUESTION  365 

Brigade,"  who,  in  obedience  to  a  bungled  order,  rode  a 
mile  and  a  half  under  a  murderous  fire.  Faster  and  faster 
grew  the  pace  until,  with  a  cheer,  they  broke  into  the  bat- 
tery, sabered  the  gunners  and  burst  through  a  column  of 
infantry.  Then  they  turned  and  cut  their  way  back.  But 
out  of  the  six  hundred  not  two  hundred  returned.  "It  is 
magnificent,  but  it  is  not  war,"  was  the  comment  of  St. 
Arnaud.  At  Inkermann  8,000  British  sustained  for  sev- 
eral hours  a  hand-to-hand  fight  against  50,000  Russians 
until  6,000  French  came  to  their  aid  and  completed  the 
rout  of  the  enemy. 

"I  have  two  generals  who  will  not  fail  me,"  said  the 
Czar,  "General  January  and  General  February."  The 
allied  armies  suffered  terribly  during  the  following  win- 
ter, not  alone  from  the  severity  of  the  climate,  but  from 
the  mismanagement  and  the  shameful  breakdown  of  the 
commissariat.  The  supplies  of  food,  clothing,  and  other 
necessaries  were  often  sent  where  they  were  not  wanted. 
The  men  were  often  half-fed,  they  were  clothed  in  rags 
utterly  inadequate  for  their  protection;  for  any  benefits 
which  their  boots  afforded  they  might  almost  as  well  have 
been  barefooted.  They  slept  on  the  wet  ground,  badly  shel- 
tered by  tents.  They  toiled  for  many  hours  every  day  in 
the  trenches  ankle  deep  in  mud.  They  had  no  fuel  and 
often  could  not  cook  their  food.  They  sickened  and  died 
by  hundreds.  The  British  army  was  moldering  swiftly 
away  under  the  neglect  and  mismanagement  of  its  own 
leaders.  Several  regiments  became  literally  extinct.  One 
had  but  seven  men  left  for  duty,  another  had  thirty.  When 
the  sick  were  put  on  board  transports  to  be  conveyed  to 
hospitals  the  mortality  was  shocking.  In  some  ships  one 
man  in  every  four  died  in  a  voyage  of  seven  days.  In 
some  of  the  hospitals  recovery  was  a  rare  exception.  At 
one  time  four-fifths  of  the  poor  fellows  who  underwent 


366  MODERN  EUROPE 

amputation  died  of  gangrene.  During  the  first  seven 
months  of  the  siege  of  Sebasto>pol  the  men  perished  by  dis- 
ease at  a  rate  which  would  have  extinguished  the  entire 
force  in  a  little  more  than  a  year  and  a  half.  The  total 
British  loss  in  this  war  was  20,656,  and  of  these  only  2,598 
were  slain  in  battle.  To  Florence  Nightingale,  the 
daughter  of  an  English  clergyman,  was  due  the  establish- 
ment of  proper  nursing  in  the  military  hospitals;  not 
merely  then,  but  thereafter. 

The  prodigous  strength  of  the  fortifications  of  Sebasto- 
pol,  together  with  the  skill  of  its  defense,  protracted  the 
siege  for  nearly  a  year  and  rendered  it  one  O'f  the  greatest 
in  history.  The  Czar  Nicholas  died  (March,  1855),  but 
Alexander  II,  his  son  and  successor,  kept  up  the  enormous 
drain  on  the  population  and  resources  of  Russia.  Trenches 
of  the  allies  drew  closer  and  closer  to  the  Russian  redoubts, 
till  the  foes  were  within  speaking  distance.  September  8, 
1855,  after  three  days'  continuous  cannonading,  the  French 
stormed  and  carried  the  Malakoff,  the  key  of  Sebastopol. 
That  night  the  Russians  evacuated  the  city,  leaving  it  in 
blazing  ruins.  Except  for  the  surrender  of  Kars  in  Cau- 
casia to  the  Russians,  the  war  ended  with  the  fall  of  Sebas- 
topol. A  treaty  of  peace  was  signed  at  Paris  March,  1856, 
by  which  Russia  lost  all  she  had  attempted  to  gain,  but  the 
article  prohibiting  Russia  from  building  arsenals  or  hav- 
ing warships  on  the  Black  Sea  was  abrogated  in  1871.  . 

As  a  result  of  the  war  the  powers  persuaded  the  Sultan 
to  proclaim  equal  rights  to  all  his  citizens.  But  he  was 
either  powerless  or  unwilling  to  enforce  it,  and  massacres 
of  Christians  went  on  as  before.  In  1860  thousands  of 
them  were  killed  in  Lebanon  and  Damascus.  In  the  fol- 
lowing year  Abdul-Medjid  died  and  his  brother  Abdul- 
Aziz  succeeded.  Then  the  people  of  Moldavia  and  Wal- 
lachia  united  into  one  State  of  Roumania,  and  in  1866 


THE  EASTERN  QUESTION  367 

chose  Prince  Charles  of  Hohenzollern  as  hereditary 
Prince,  while  the  Porte  was  powerless  through  weakness 
and  corruption  to  interfere.  A  Cretan  rebellion  was  sup- 
pressed in  1868,  but  Servia  already  autonomous  in  her  own 
territory  demanded  the  removal  of  the  Turkish  garrison 
from  her  fortresses,  and  the  concession  had  to  be  made. 
The  Sultan  was  now  also  obliged  to  confer  the  title  of 
Khedive  on  his  vassal  in  Egypt,  who  had  become  a  pow- 
erful monarch,  and  gradual  concessions  soon  made  the 
latter  an  independent  ruler.  When  the  Franco-German 
War  of  1870  commenced,  Russia  seized  the  opportunity 
of  repudiating  the  Black  Sea  clauses  of  the  Treaty  of  Paris. 
Meanwhile  Turkey  was  drifting  into  ruin  through  the  mis- 
management which  prevailed.  An  insurrection  com- 
menced in  Herzegovina  in  1875  and  smouldered  for  some 
time,  exciting  the  feelings  of  all  the  Slavonic  peoples  in 
Southeast  Europe.  It  soon  spread  to  Bulgaria  and  was 
repressed  with  much  cruelty.  In  1876  Abdul- Aziz  was 
deposed  and  his  nephew,  Amurath  V,  succeeded,  to  be 
replaced  in  three  months  by  Abdul-Hamid  II.  Toward  the 
end  of  June  reports  reached  Western  Europe  of  the  sup- 
pression of  an  insurrection  in  Bulgaria  with  measures  of 
atrocious  violence.  Servia  and  Montenegro  declared  war. 
The  vague  reports  from  Bulgaria  took  more  definite  form, 
and  the  correspondents  of  German  and  English  news- 
papers, making  their  way  to  the  district  south  of  the 
Balkans,  found  in  villages  still  strewn  with  skeletons  and 
human  remains,  the  terrible  evidences  of  what  had  passed. 
Deeds  worse  than  murder  were  committed  by  these  bar- 
barians in  Turkish  pay.  Gladstone  left  his  retirement  to 
denounce  these  horrors;  but  Disraeli,  then  prime  minister 
of  England,  declared  that  Turkey  must  be  preserved  at 
all  hazards,  and  that  if  the  Czar  gave  aid  to  the  Christians 
be  would  be  in  danger  of  war  with  Great  Britain,  as  at  the 


368  MODERN  EUROPE 

time  of  the  Crimean  War.  The  powers  tried  to  prevent 
Russia's  interference  and  the  Government  itself  was  afraid 
to  undertake  it.  But  the  pressure  of  public  opinion  in 
Russia  was  too  strong.  Even  in  despotic  Russia  public 
opinion  can  make  itself  felt.  The  massacre  of  thousands 
of  Greek  Christians,  merely  because  they  were  Greek 
Christians,  aroused  those  of  the  same  faith  in  Russia. 
Forced  by  his  people  to  make  war,  the  Czar  sent  Russian 
armies  across  the  Danube  (June,  1877),  and  in  spite  of  the 
hard  defense  of  Plevna  by  the  Turks,  they  were  soon 
almost  within  sight  of  the  towers  of  St.  Sophia. 

Guorko,  in  command  of  an  army  that  had  gathered  to 
the  southwest  of  Plevna,  made  his  way  through  the  moun- 
tains above  Etropol  in  the  last  days  of  December,  and  driv- 
ing the  Turks  from  Sophia,  pressed  on  to  Philippopolis  and 
Adrianople.  Farther  east  two  columns  crossed  the  Balkans 
by  by-paths  right  and  left  of  the  Shipka  Pass,  and  then, 
converging  on  Shipka  itself,  fell  on  the  rear  of  the  Turkish 
army,  which  still  blocked  the  southern  outlet.  Simultane- 
ously a  third  corps  marched  down  the  pass  from  the  north 
and  assailed  the  Turks  in  front.  After  a  fierce  struggle 
the  entire  Turkish  army,  35,000  strong,  laid  down  its 
arms..  There  now  remained  only  one  considerable  force 
between  the  invaders  and  Constantinople.  This  body, 
which  was  commanded  by  Souleiman,  held  the  road  which 
runs  along  the  valley  of  the  Maritza  at  a  point  somewhat 
east  of  the  east  of  Philippopolis.  Against  it  Gourko 
advanced  from  the  west,  while  the  victors  of  Shipka, 
descending  due  south  through  Kesanlik,  barred  the  line  of 
retreat  toward  Adrianople.  The  last  encounter  of  the  war 
took  place  January  17,  1878.  Souleiman's  army,  routed 
and  demoralized,  succeeded  in  making  its  escape  to  the 
^gean  coast.  Pursuit  was  unnecessary,  for  the  war  was 
now  practically  over.  On  January  20  the  Russians  made 


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THE  EASTERN  QUESTION  369 

their  entry  in  Adrianople.  In  the  next  few  days  their 
advance  guard  touched  the  Sea  of  Marmora  at  Rodosto. 

Immediately  after  the  fall  of  Plevna  the  Porte  had 
applied  to  the  European  powers  for  their  mediation.  Dis- 
asters in  Asia  had  already  warned  it  not  to  delay  submis- 
sion too  long;  for  in  the  middle  of  October  Mukhtar  Pasha 
had  been  driven  from  his  positions,  and  a  month  later 
Kars  had  been  taken  by  storm.  The  Russians  had  subse- 
quently penetrated  into  Armenia  and  had  captured  the 
outworks  of  Erzeroum.  Each  day  that  now  passed 
brought  the  Ottoman  Empire  nearer  to  destruction.  Ser- 
via  declared  war;  the  Montenegrins  made  themselves  mas- 
ters of  the  coast  towns  and  of  border  territory  north  and 
south;  Greece  seemed  likely  to  enter  into  the  struggle. 
Baffled  in  an  attempt  to  gain  the  common  mediation  of  the 
powers,  the  Sultan  for  a  second  time  appealed  to  the 
Queen  of  England  personally  for  her  good  offices  in  bring- 
ing the  conflict  to  a  close.  In  reply  to  a  telegram  from 
London,  the  Czar  declared  himself  willing  to  treat  for 
peace  as  soon  as  direct  communications  should  be 
addressed  to  his  representatives  by  the  Porte.  On  the 
1 4th  of  January  commissioners  were  sent  to  the  head- 
quarters of  the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas  at  Kesanlik  to  treat 
for  an  armistice  and  for  preliminaries  of  peace.  The  Rus- 
sians, now  in  the  full  tide  of  victory,  were  in  no  hurry 
to  agree  with  their  adversary.  Nicholas  bade  the  Turkish 
envoys  accompany  him  to  Adrianople,  and  it  was  not  until 
the  3ist  of  January  that  the  armistice  was  granted  and  the 
preliminaries  of  peace  signed. 

The  bases  of  the  peace  which  were  made  the  condi- 
tions of  the  armistice  granted  at  Adrianople  formed  with 
little  alteration  the  substance  of  the  treaty  signed  by  Rus- 
sia and  Turkey  at  San  Stefano,  a  village  on  the  Sea  of 
Marmora,  on  the  3d  of  March.  By  this  treaty  the  Porte 

VOI,.  2  —  2^ 


370  MODERN  EUROPE 

recognized  the  independence  of  Servia,  Montenegro,  and 
Roumania,  and  made  considerable  concessions  of  territory 
to  the  two  former  States.  Bulgaria  was  constituted  an 
autonomous  tributary  Principality,  with  a  Christian  Gov- 
ernment and  a  national  militia.  Its  frontier,  which  was 
made  so  extensive  as  to  include  the  greater  part  of  Euro- 
pean Turkey,  was  defined  as  beginning  near  Midia  on  the 
Black  Sea,  not  sixty  miles  from  the  Bosphorus;  passing 
thence  westward  just  to  the  north  of  Adrianople;  descend- 
ing to  the  ^Egean  Sea,  and  following  the  coast  as  far  as 
the  Thracian  Chersonese;  then  passing  inland  westward, 
so  as  barely  to  exclude  Salonika;  running  on  to  the  border 
of  Albania  within  fifty  miles  of  the  Adriatic,  and  from 
this  point  following  the  Albanian  border  up  to  the  new 
Servian  frontier.  The  Prince  of  Bulgaria  was  to  be  freely 
elected  by  the  population,  and  confirmed  by  the  Porte,  with 
the  assent  of  the  powers;  a  system  of  administration  was 
to  be  drawn  up  by  an  assembly  of  Bulgarian  notables ;  and 
the  introduction  of  the  new  system  into  Bulgaria  with 
superintendence  of  its  working  was  to  be  entrusted  for 
two  years  to  a  Russian  Commissioner.  Until  the  native 
militia  was  organized,  Russian  troops,  not  exceeding 
50,000  in  number,  were  to  occupy  the  country;  this  occu- 
pation, however,  was  to  be  limited  to  a  term  approximat- 
ing to  two  years.  In  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  the  pro- 
posals laid  before  the  Porte  at  the  first  sitting  of  the  Con- 
ference of  1876  were  to  be  immediately  introduced,  sub- 
ject to  such  modifications  as  might  be  agreed  upon  between 
Turkey,  Russia,  and  Austria.  The  Porte  undertook  to 
apply  scrupulously  in  Crete  the  Organic  Law,  which  had 
been  drawn  up  in  1868,  taking  into  account  the  previously 
expressed  wishes  of  the  native  population.  An  analogous 
law,  adapted  to  local  requirements,  was,  after  being  com- 
municated to  the  Czar,  to  be  introduced  into  Epirus,  Thes- 


THE  EASTERN  QUESTION  371 

saly,  and  other  parts  of  Turkey  in  Europe,  for  which  a 
special  constitution  was  not  provided  by  the  treaty.  Com- 
missions, in  which  the  native  population  was  to  be  largely 
represented,  were  in  each  province  to  be  entrusted  with  the 
task  of  elaborating  the  details  of  the  new  organization. 
In  Armenia  the  Sultan  undertook  to  carry  into  effect  with- 
out further  delay  the  improvements  and  reforms  demanded 
by  local  requirements,  and  to  guarantee  the  security  of 
the  Armenians  from  Kurds  and  Circassians.  As  an 
indemnity  for  the  losses  and  expenses  of  the  war  the  Porte 
admitted  itself  to  be  indebted  to  Russia  in  the  sum  of 
1,400,000,000  roubles;  but  in  accordance  with  the 
wishes  of  the  Sultan,  and  in  consideration  of  the  finan- 
cial embarrassments  of  Turkey,  the  Czar  consented  to 
accept  in  substitution  for  the  greater  part  of  this  sum  the 
cession  of  Dobrudscha  in  Europe  and  of  the  districts  of 
Ardahan,  Kars,  Batoum,  Bayazid  in  Asia.  As  to  the  bal- 
ance of  300,000,000  roubles  left  due  to  Russia,  the  mode 
of  payment  or  guarantee  was  to  be  settled  by  an  under- 
standing between  the  two  Governments.  Dobrudscha 
was  to  be  given  by  the  Czar  to  Roumania  in  exchange  for 
Bessarabia,  which  this  State  was  to  transfer  to  Russia. 
The  complete  evacuation  of  Turkey  in  Europe  was  to 
take  place  within  three  months,  that  of  Turkey  in  Asia 
within  six  months  from  the  conclusion  of  peace. 

The  Congress  of  Berlin,  at  which  Disraeli  himself  and 
Lord  Salisbury  represented  Great  Britain,  opened  on  the 
1 3th  of  June.  Though  the  compromise  between  England 
and  Russia  had  been  settled  in  general  terms,  the  arrange- 
ment of  details  opened  such  a  series  of  difficulties  that  the 
Congress  seemed  more  than  once  on  the  point  of  breaking 
up.  It  was  mainly  due  to  the  perseverance  and  wisdom  of 
Prince  Bismarck,  who  transferred  the  discussion  of  the 
most  crucial  points  from  the  Congress  to  private  meetings 


372  MODERN  EUROPE 

of  his  guests,  and  who  himself  acted  as  conciliator  when 
Gortschakoff  folded  up  his  maps  or  Lord  Beaconsfield 
ordered  a  special  train,  that  the  work  was  at  length 
achieved.  The  Treaty  of  Berlin,  signed  on  the  I3th  of 
July,  confined  Bulgaria,  as  an  autonomous  Principality, 
to  the  country  north  of  the  Balkans,  and  diminished  the 
authority  which,  pending  the  establishment  of  its  definite 
system  of  government,  would  by  the  Treaty  of  San  Stef- 
ano,  have  belonged  to  a  Russian  Commissioner.  The  por- 
tion of  Bulgaria  south  of  the  Balkans,  but  extending  no 
farther  west  than  the  valley  of  the  Maritza,  and  no  farther 
south  than  Mount  Rhodope,  was  formed  into  a  Province 
of  East  Roumelia,  to  remain  subject  to  the  direct  political 
and  military  authority  of  the  Sultan,  under  conditions 
of  administrative  autonomy.  The  Sultan  was  declared 
to  possess  the  right  of  erecting  fortifications  both  on 
the  coast  and  on  the  land  frontier  of  this  province,  and 
of  maintaining  troops  there.  Alike  in  Bulgaria  and  in 
Eastern  Roumelia,  the  period  of  occupation  by  Russian 
troops  was  limited  to  nine  months.  Bosnia  and  Herze- 
govina were  handed  over  to  Austria,  to  be  occupied  and 
administered  by  that  power.  The  concessions  of  territory 
made  to  Servia  and  Montenegro  in  the  Treaty  of  San 
Stefano  were  modified  with  the  object  of  interposing  a 
broader  strip  between  these  two  States;  Bayazid  was 
omitted  from  the  ceded  districts  in  Asia,  and  the  Czar 
declared  it  his  intention  to  erect  Batoum  into  a  free  port, 
essentially  commercial.  At  the  instance  of  France,  the 
provisions  relating  to  the  Greek  provinces  of  Turkey  were 
superseded  by  a  vote  in  favor  of  the  cession  of  part  of  these 
provinces  to  the  Hellenic  Kingdom.  The  Sultan  was 
recommended  to  cede  Thessaly  and  part  of  Epirus  to 
Greece,  the  powers  reserving  to  themselves  the  right  of 
offering  their  mediation  to  facilitate  the  negotiations.  In 


THE  EASTERN  QUESTION  373 

other  respects  the  provisions  of  the  Treaty  of  San  Stefano 
were  confirmed  without  substantial  change. 

The  Treaty  of  Berlin  settled  the  Eastern  Question  no 
more  than  did  the  Crimean  War.  It  has  only  postponed 
the  inevitable  dissolution  of  the  Turkish  Empire.  The 
French  invaded  Tunis  in  1881.  Soon  afterward  it  passed 
under  the  protection  of  France.  In  1881  there  was  a 
revolution  in  Eastern  Roumelia,  which  was  united  to  Bul- 
garia. The  Moslems  have  persisted  in  their  traditional 
policy  of  oppression  of  the  Christians  resident  in  their  ter- 
ritories, and  have  escaped  the  penalties  of  their  crimes  by 
the  skillful  diplomacy  of  Abdul-Hamid,  who  became  Sul- 
tan in  1876.  There  have  been  constant  troubles  with  the 
Arabians,  and  the  Macedonians  have  striven  for  independ- 
ence in  an  ineffectual  fashion  that  has  not  diminished  the 
constant  massacres  that  are  laying  waste  the  country  that 
gave  birth  to  Alexander  the  Great,  Aristotle,  and  Philip 
of  Macedon.  But  the  powers  have  used  their  influence  to 
prevent  insurrections,  and  refused  to  interfere  at  the  time 
of  the  Armenian  massacres  (1894-96),  which  seem  to 
have  exceeded  in  their  atrocity  those  that  led  to  the  Russo- 
Turkish  War.  Insurrections  in  Crete  broke  out  in  1877, 
1885,  1887,  and  1889,  but  finally  became  more  serious  in 
1895  and  1896.  The  Greek  Government  was  forced  to 
war  against  its  will,  by  the  pressure  of  public  opinion,  to 
protect  the  Cretans.  The  powers  forbade  them  to  fight, 
and  prevented  a  rising  in  the  Balkans  by  diplomatic  pres- 
sure. The  Turks  easily  defeated  the  Greeks,  who  lost 
heavily  during  the  brief  war.  Meanwhile  the  warships  of 
Great  Britain,  France,  Germany,  Austria-Hungary,  Rus- 
sia, and  Italy  blockaded  Crete  and  defeated  the  insurgents. 
When  peace  was  restored  between  Greece  and  Turkey,  the 
powers  made  Crete  a  tributary  State,  with  Prince  George 
of  Greece  as  Governor  ( 1898). 


374  MODERN  EUROPE 

Diplomats  believed  that  as  autonomous  States  Rou- 
mania,  Greece,  Montenegro,  Servia,  and  Bulgaria,  the  five 
States  created  by  the  wars  of  the  Nineteenth  Century,  were 
in  danger  of  becoming  Russian  dependencies  in  fact  if  not 
in  name.  No  such  fate  has  befallen  them.  They  have 
shown  signs  of  strong  national  life,  and  although  their 
internal  administration  has  been  wholly  quiet,  Russian 
intrigues  have  failed.  They  have  prospered  since  they 
were  released  from  the  Turkish  yoke,  and  show  no  desire 
for  union  with  Russia,  although  all  are  adherents  of  the 
Eastern  Orthodox  or  Greek  Church.  But  there  has  never 
been  a  time  when  they  did  not  dream  of  bringing  the  same 
blessings  of  liberty  to  their  fellow  Christians  who  are  being 
massacred,  or  condemned  to  worse  fates,  by  their  Ottoman 
masters.  In  this  sense  they  have  been  disturbers  of  the 
tranquillity  of  the  great  powers,  but  pressure  from  the 
latter  has  been  sufficient  to  preserve  any  serious  breach  of 
the  peace,  with  the  sole  exception  of  the  Cretan  insur- 
rection. 


DECADENCE  OF  SPAIN 

There  is  a  pathetic  side  to  the  vanishing  from  the  list 
of  great  powers  of  the  Nation  that  at  one  time  was  the 
most  powerful  in  the  world.  Time  was  when  Spain's  flag 
waved  from  every  Continent,  and  Philip  II  was  the  most 
famous  conqueror  of  his  day.  It  was  the  Emperor  Charles 
V  who  first  made  the  proud  boast  that  on  his  dominions 
the  sun  never  set,  nor  was  it  an  idle  word,  but  a  plain 
statement  of  fact.  At  its  greatest  extent  the  Spanish 
Empire  spread  so  far  beyond  the  limits  of  the  peninsula 
that  the  original  boundaries  of  the  Spanish  State  inclosed 
its  smallest  possession.  The  sway  of  Charles  was  acknowl- 
edged, not  only  over  Spain,  of  which  he  was  the  hereditary 
monarch,  but  in  a  large  part  of  Southern  Italy,  in  Sicily, 
in  Portugal  and  in  the  Netherlands,  while  as  Emperor  he 
ruled  over  a  considerable  portion  of  the  present  possessions 
of  Austria  and  all  the  small  States,  which,  almost  from 
the  dawn  of  authentic  history,  have  been  grouped  under 
the  general  name  of  Germany.  In  America  the  Spanish 
power  was  acknowledged  over  a  territory  so  vast  as  to 
make  the  mightiest  Empires  of  antiquity  seem  contempti- 
ble by  comparison.  Charles  claimed  for  his  own  the 
8,000,000  square  miles  of  North  America  and  the  7,000,- 
ooo  of  South  America,  a  grand  total  of  15,000,000  square 
miles  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  while  his  possessions  in 
Africa,  Asia,  and  the  innumerable  islands  that,  in  every 
sea,  acknowledged  allegiance  to  the  Spanish  throne, 
brought  up,  with  the  European  States,  the  area  of  the 
Empire  to  a  grand  total  of  not  fewer  and  perhaps 
more  than  17,000,000  square  miles.  Never  before 

375 


3y6  MODERN  EUROPE 

nor  since  has  so  vast  a  territory  been  governed 
by  one  man.  The  Czar  of  Russia  rules  a  territory 
a  little  more  than  half  the  size  of  that  which  owned  the 
sway  of  Charles;  the  British  flag  floats  over  much  less 
than  two-thirds  that  area;  the  Roman  eagles,  in  the  golden 
days  of  Trajan,  were  honored  over  a  territory  only  one- 
sixth  as  large  as  the  dominions  of  Charles,  while  the 
Empires  of  Greece,  and  Assyria,  and  Babylon,  and  the 
great  States  founded  by  the  Moguls  and  Genghis  Khan, 
were  petty  by  comparison  with  the  Spanish  dominions. 
Over  100  different  political  commonwealths  have  been 
carved  out  of  the  Spanish  Empire,  and  still  the  process  is 
going  on. 

Yet  the  Nineteenth  Century  has  seen  the  completion 
of  the  story  of  the  loss  of  this  great  Empire.  No  country 
was  probably  ever  so  cursed  with  fanatical  and  imbecile 
Kings  as  Spain  was  during  the  Sixteenth  and  Seventeenth 
Centuries.  Each  seemed,  if  possible,  a  little  worse  than 
his  predecessors,  a  little  more  stupid,  a  little  more  bigoted, 
and  a  little  less  able  to  see  facts  that  were  obvious  to  all 
others.  Provinces  and  dependent  States  were  in  constant 
insurrection,  many  of  which  were  successful,  and  Spain's 
possessions  fell  a  prey  to  her  more  wisely  ruled  neighbors. 
The  Eighteenth  Century  was  a  period  of  almost  uninter- 
rupted disaster.  Two  unsuccessful  wars  were  waged  with 
England;  during  one,  Gibraltar  became  an  English  pos- 
session; during  the  other,  when  Spain  took  sides  with 
France  after  the  Revolution,  the  Spanish  fleet  was 
destroyed,  all  the  ports  of  Spain  were  blockaded,  and  the 
country  reduced  to  abject  misery.  But  these  great  mis- 
fortunes were  small  when  compared  to  those  which  canie 
in  the  first  quarter  of  this  Century.  The  attempt  of  Napo- 
leon to  force  a  French  King  upon  the  Spanish  people  led 


DECADENCE  OF  SPAIN  377 

to  a  guerrilla  war  against  the  invaders  which  raged  for 
years  in  every  nook  and  corner  of  the  peninsula,  and, 
though  successful,  left  the  country  a  barren  waste.  The 
officers  of  Wellington's  army  have  left  accounts  of  the 
pitiable  condition  of  Spain  and  its  inhabitants  as  witnessed 
during  their  campaigns  against  the  French.  Throughout 
whole  Provinces  not  a  farm  was  under  cultivation;  heaps 
of  ashes  and  standing  chimneys  marked  the  sites  of  towns 
and  villages,  and  a  few  ragged,  starving  wretches,  pick- 
ing up  acorns  in  the  forests,  represented  the  population. 

Such  was  the  state  of  Spain  at  the  end  of  Napoleon's 
wars,  and  worse  was  to  come,  for  three  years  after  Napo- 
leon had  been  sent  to  St.  Helena,  mutterings  of  revolt  were 
heard  in  the  American  colonies.  By  1820  the  whole  of 
Spanish  America  was  in  open  insurrection.*  Heroic 
attempts  were  made  by  the  Government  to  put  down  the 
rebellions  that  had  sprung  up  all  over  the  Spanish  colonies, 
but  from  Mexico  to  Chili  the  whole  country  was  up  and 
armed,  and  the  few  troops  that  could  be  sent  from  Spain 
accomplished  nothing.  The  same  policy  afterward  was  pros- 
ecuted in  Cuba — that  of  extermination — was  attempted  in 
America,  but  the  Spaniards  were  too  few  to  exterminate 
whole  Nations,  and,  though  the  war  was  prosecuted  with 
as  much  vigor  as  could  be  shown  by  a  degenerate  race, 
before  the  close  of  1826  the  Spaniards  had  been  driven 
from  every  position  on  the  mainland  of  America  and  their 
splendid  Empire  was  gone.  Since  then  the  decline  of 
Spain  has  been  still  more  marked  than  before.  Revolution 
has  succeeded  revolution;  a  war  with  France  in  1823,  civil 
wars  in  the  Basque  country,  the  Carlist  war  and  other 
struggles  have  tended  to  weaken  the  Nation,  while  indus- 
tries are  paralyzed,  agriculture  is  at  a  standstill,  and,  after 

*  See  Volume  "  American  History." 


37S  MODERN  EUROPE 

the  war  with  America  banished  the  Spaniards  from  Cuba, 
Puerto  Rico  and  the  Philippines,  of  its  former  greatness 
Spain  retained  only  the  pride  of  recollection. 

So  rapid  a  decline  and  a  fall  so  great  have  not  taken 
place  without  attracting  the  attention  of  philosophical 
minds,  which  have  exerted  themselves  to  discover  and 
explain  the  causes  of  the  decay  of  an  Empire  that  com- 
prised more  territory  within  its  limits  than  any  other 
known  to  the  historian.  It  is  interesting  to  observe  that, 
in  general,  the  historians  have  explained  the  phenomenon 
according  to  their  own  prejudices.  The  Protestant  uses 
the  decline  as  an  object  lesson  against  the  prevalent  reli- 
gion of  Spain,  finding  a  full  and  satisfactory  explanation 
in  the  Inquisition  and  the  suppression  of  the  freedom  of 
religious  opinion;  one  Catholic  historian,  on  the  contrary, 
attributes  the  decadence  to  the  leniency  in  dealing  with 
heresy  in  its  early  stages,  affirming  that  had  Charles  V 
exerted  due  diligence  in  stamping  out  the  Reformation 
in  Germany,  Spain  would  be  to-day  what  she  was  then, 
the  greatest  power  on  the  earth.  The  political  economist 
teaches  that  the  enormous  wealth  brought  from  America, 
instead  of  enriching,  really  impoverished  Spain,  since  it 
induced  neglect  of  home  industries  and  generated  an 
extravagance  which  became  the  ruin  of  the  Nation. 
Pride  of  character  and  an  arrogance  that  excited  the  hatred 
of  all  foreigners  and  the  antagonism  of  all  foreign  States ; 
the  warlike  habits  of  the  Spanish  people,  confirmed  by 
eight  Centuries  of  constant  conflict  with  the  Moors,  drain- 
ing the  country  of  its  best  men  and  leaving  only  the  weakly 
and  infirm,  each  and  every  one  of  these  causes,  together 
with  innumerable  others,  have  been  upheld  by  able  advo- 
cates. Explain  it  as  we  may,  the  fact  remains,  that  from 
whatever  cause  or  causes,  the  Spain  of  to-day  is  but  a  phan- 
tom of  the  Spain  of  three  Centuries  ago;  the  splendid 


DECADENCE  OF  SPAIN  379 

Empire  of  Charles  V  and  Philip  II  has  not  melted  away. 
It  has  been  violently  rent  in  pieces,  and  not  a  leading 
power  in  the  world  but  has  grown  great,  in  some  degree, 
at  the  expense  of  Spain. 

The  history  of  Spain  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 
has  had  but  slight  connection  with  that  of  the  rest  of 
Europe.  It  has  been  a  story  of  civil  wars,  usually 
brought  about  by  the  wickedness  of  the  Bourbon  rulers. 
An  absolute  monarchy,  reestablished  in  1814,  broken 
only  by  an  interval  of  two  years,  1821-23,  lasted  until 
the  death  of  Ferdinand  VII,  in  1833.  Then  followed  a 
long  period  of  disturbance,  during  which  the  followers 
of  Don  Carlos,  the  brother  of  Ferdinand,  fought  against 
the  succession  of  his  infant  daughter.  Modern  ideas 
and  the  old  monarchical  rights  were  in  continual  opposi- 
tion until  the  Regent,  Christina,  succeeded  in  binding 
the  Liberal  party  to  her  daughter  Isabella's  cause  by 
granting  a  constitution  in  1837.  The  very  doubtfulness 
of  Queen  Isabella's  title  to  the  throne  afforded,  or 
seemed  to  afford,  a  guarantee  of  her  fidelity  to  the  con- 
stitution. The  Spanish  Generals,  in  consequence,  es- 
poused her  cause  with  enthusiasm.  Both  France  and 
England  sided  with  the  dynasty  which  supported  the 
principles  of  constitutional  monarchy,  and  at  last,  after 
a  warfare  waged  with  varying  fortunes  and  unvarying 
ferocity,  Don  Carlos  quitted  Spain  in  despair  in  1839, 
and  the  question  of  his  succession  was  considered  to  be 
finally  settled  in  favor  of  Isabella  II,  a  child  not  yet  in 
her  teens. 

The  new  dynasty  was  not  conducted  with  prudence. 
Three  months  after  the  death  of  her  husband,  Christina 
remarried — they  called  it  that — although  it  was  not 
recognized  for  eleven  years.  Her  spouse  was  a  young 
and  handsome  dragoon,  named  Munoz,  who  was  made 


3So  MODERN  EUROPE 

Duke  de  Rianzares  because  of  his  connection  with  roy- 
alty. But  Christina  did  not  confine  her  affections  to  the 
man  she  made  Duke.  There  were  other  men  equally 
favored,  and  it  was  amid  such  influences  that  Isabella 
reached  her  majority,  which,  as  she  was  Queen,  was 
when  she  was  thirteen  years  of  age.  One  of  her  first 
acts  was  to  ratify  the  marriage  of  her  mother,  made 
eleven  years  before. 

Isabella  II  had  been  educated  in  a  school  of  vice,  and 
she  did  credit  to  her  bringing  up.  From  the  first,  even 
at  the  tender  age  of  thirteen,  she  began  the  series  of 
gallantries,  as  they  are  called  in  the  case  of  Queens, 
which  have  made  her  notorious,  and  which  finally  forced 
her  from  the  throne.  Absolutism  drept  into  the  Govern- 
ment, the  constitution  was  abolished,  and  the  press  was 
restricted.  It  was  thought  that  it  was  time  for  Isabella 
to  marry  and  Louis  Philippe  proposed  that  his  son 
should  marry  Isabella's  sister,  while  Isabella  should  be 
given  to  her  cousin  on  her  father's  side,  Francisco 
d'Assizi,  who  could  never  be  a  father.  He  thus  hoped  to 
secure  the  successor  for  his  own  son,  and  finally  suc- 
ceeded in  overcoming  the  opposition  to  the  marriage, 
after  a  long  diplomatic  conference,  known  as  the  ques- 
tion of  the  "Spanish  Marriages,"  in  which  all  Europe 
took  part.  Isabella  almost  immediately  proceeded  to 
compensate  herself  for  the  manage  de  convenance,  and 
Marshal  Serrano  was  the  most  conspicuous  of  her 
favorites.  While  yet  a  bride  she  used  to  address  him  as 
her  "bonita  Francisco,"  and  the  court  generally  believed 
he  stood  in  the  place  of  her  husband.  Meanwhile  her 
mother,  Christina,  while  nominally  no  longer  Regent, 
really  ruled  the  country.  Isabella  bore  a  son  in  1851, 
and,  in  spite  of  her  husband's  impotence  and  the  general 
belief  that  Serrano  was  the  boy's  father,  as  the  child  was 


DECADENCE  OF  SPAIN  381 

born  in  wedlock  he  ascended  to  the  throne  in  due  time. 
That  son  was  Alfonso  XII,  the  late  King  of  Spain,  and 
father  of  Alfonso  XIII,  the  child  who  has  nominally 
ruled  since  his  birth,  six  months  after  the  death  of  his 
sire. 

To  the  amazement  of  Europe,  and  the  disgust  of 
her  own  subjects,  Isabella  ruled  and  reveled  for  thirty- 
five  years.  Her  throne  even  withstood  the  revolutions 
of  1848,  the  effects  of  which  were  scarcely  felt  in  Spain. 
Yet  the  liberal  spirit  grew,  while  the  smouldering  dis- 
content gave  rise  to  another  Carlist  insurrection.  Don 
Carlos,  the  first  pretender,  died  in  1855.  But  a  second 
pretender  rose  in  his  son,  Don  Carlos,  Count  de 
Montemolin.  In  1860  an  attempt  was  made  at  Va- 
lencia to  stir  up  another  Carlist  insurrection,  in  conse- 
quence of  which  the  pretender  and  his  brother,  Fer- 
dinand, were  arrested,  but  liberated  after  they  had  signed 
a  renunciation  of  their  claims  to  the  Spanish  throne. 

At  last  the  scandals  and  absolutism  of  Isabella's  reign 
were  too  much  for  her  subjects,  and  revolution  broke 
out.  The  war  with  Morocco  accomplished  little,  while 
the  Spanish  expedition  against  Mexico  in  1861  'failed, 
and  the  war  with  Chili,  Peru,  and  Ecuador  (1864  and 
1865)  proved  Spain's  weakness.  General  Prim  and 
Marshal  Serrano — the  former  favorite,  succeeded  by 
innumerable  lovers,  had  been  exiled — placed  themselves 
at  the  head  of  the  revolutionists.  Isabella  fled,  as  all 
Spain  was  demanding  her  dethronement,  and  Madrid 
opened  its  gates  to  the  victorious  Generals.  Isabella 
fled  to  Paris,  where  she  has  lived  since  the  same  life, 
and  although  now  (1899)  sixty-six  years  of  age,  she 
still  has  her  lovers. 

In  1868  began  one  of  the  most  stormy  periods  in 
the  history  of  Spain,  which,  was  torn  with  civil  war, 


3§2  MODERN  EUROPE 

resulting  from  the  claims  of  the  factions  of  the  revolu- 
tionists. It  was  in  this  year,  too,  that  the  Ten  Years' 
War  in  Cuba  began. 

The  men  at  the  head  of  affairs  proclaimed  a  constitu- 
tion and  then  tried  to  find  a  ruler  for  Spain.  The 
nephew  of  the  former  Don  Carlos  and  the  present  pre- 
tender hastened  to  offer  himself;  not  finding  his  offer 
welcomed,  he  incited  uprisings  in  1869,  1870,  and  1872, 
which  were  speedily  repressed.  The  constitution  of 
February  18,  1869,  provided  for  a  monarch,  but  there 
was  none.  In  the  meantime  the  real  ruler  of  the  country 
was  the  Minister-President  and  Minister  of  War,  Count 
Prim.  Espareto,  Don  Fernando  (father  of  the  King 
of  Portugal),  King  Louis  of  Portugal  himself,  the  Duke 
of  Aosta  (son  of  Victor  Emmanuel),  Prince  Thomas  of 
Genoa,  all  in  turn  refused.  The  Duke  of  Montpensier, 
brother-in-law  to  the  ex-Queen,  would  have  accepted, 
but  the  temper  of  the  country  was  against  Bourbons. 
One  of  those  offered  the  throne  was  Prince  Leopold  of 
Hohenzollern,  who  at  first  accepted,  but  then  refused, 
and  the  tender  of  the  throne  to  whom  furnished  Na- 
poleon III  with  the  pretext  for  the  Frana>German  War, 
that  ended  so  disastrously  for  France.  Finally,  after 
two  years  without  a  ruler,  Marshal  Prim  succeeded  in 
inducing  Duke  Amadeo,  second  son  of  the  King  of  Italy, 
to  accept  the  crown,  and  the  Cortes  elected  him 
(November  16,  1870)  by  a  vote  of  191  to>  98.  Before 
the  new  King  took  the  oath  of  office  (January  2,  1871) 
Marshal  Prim  had  been  assassinated,  and  he  lost  his 
strongest  support.  Amadeo>  was  unable  to  secure  a 
Ministry  because  of  the  division  of  the  parties  in  the 
Cortes,  and  after  three  years  of  insults,  he  resigned 
(February  8,  1873).  The  Carlists  then  again  appeared 
on  the  scene,  while,  seeing  that  some  government  was 


DECADENCE  OF  SPAIN  383 

necessary,  a  Republic  was  established  immediately,  with 
Fogueras  as  President  of  a  Council  of  Ministers,  in 
which  Castelar  was  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs. 

When  the  Spanish  Republic  of  1873  came  into  being 
it  found  itself  face  to  face  with  this  issue :  What  sort  of 
a  shape,  centralized  or  Federal,  shall  the  Government 
take?  Shall  it  follow  the  model  of  France  or  shall  it 
adopt  that  of  the  United  States?  The  third  French 
Republic,  the  one  which  is  still  in  existence,  had  just 
been  created,  and  its  establishment  was  one  of  the  forces 
which  gave  direction  and  impulse  to  republican  sentiment 
in  Spain.  The  question  of  the  shape  which  the  Gov- 
ernment should  take  had  not  presented  itself  to  the 
Spanish  Republicans  until  the  moment  when  the  actual- 
work,  of  building  the  Government's  framework  had 
arrived.  This  unreadiness  was  due  in  part  to  the  sud- 
denness of  Amadeo's  abdication.  But  it  was  also  due 
to  an  absence  of  practical  statesmen  among  the  Repub- 
lican chieftains.  To  use  an  American  illustration,  the 
Spanish  Republicans  of  1873  had  many  Samuel  Adamses 
and  Patrick  Henrys,  but  they  had  no  George  Washing- 
tons,  Alexander  Hamiltons,  or  Thomas  Jeffersons. 

Most  of  the  rank  and  file  of  the  Republicans  wanted 
a  government  on  the  United  States  model.  Practically 
the  whole  of  their  best-known  leaders  favored  the 
French  form.  The  Federal  plan,  of  course,  would  give 
more  local  liberty,  and  this  is  why  the  Republican  masses 
desired  it.  The  centralized  system  would  furnish  greater 
stability  and  security  to  the  Nation,  and  for  this  reason 
the  Republican  chieftains  advocated  it.  If  a  Federal 
system  was  formed,  with  autonomy  for  each  province, 
its  friends  believed  that  conscription  could  be  evaded 
and  some  of  the  National  taxes  dodged — or  at  least  they 
could  be  reduced.  These  were  among  the  reasons  why 


384  MODERN  EUROPE 

the  more  intelligent  and  experienced  Republicans  op- 
posed federation.  They  said  that  if  local  home  rule  were 
granted,  the  army  and  navy  would  soon  fall  to  pieces,  the 
latter  through  the  refusal  of  some  or  many  of  the  prov- 
inces to  make  appropriations  for  its  support,  and  the 
former  through  the  failure  to  furnish  it  either  money  or 
men.  Moreover,  the  opponents  of  federation  contended 
that  under  a  Federal  system  some  of  the  provinces  near 
the  Pyrenees  might  secede  and  join  France,  the  Basque 
Provinces  in  the  same  quarter  would  be  likely  to  choose 
Don  Carlos  as  a  ruler,  while  some  of  the  states  border- 
ing on  the  Mediterranean  might  set  up  a  republic  for 
themselves. 

These  were  the  ideas  and  arguments  of  the  two  great 
factions  into  which  the  Spanish  Republicans  were 
thrown  when  Amadeo's  sudden  abandonment  of  the 
throne  brought  the  Republic  to  the  front.  The  Con- 
servative faction — the  centralizers  as  distinguished  from 
the  Federationists,  the  advocates  of  the  French  Govern- 
mental plan  as  against  the  United  States  system — beat 
the  Radical  element.  That  is,  the  programme  of  the 
Intransigente  party,  or  the  ultras,  for  a  Federal  Republic 
with  home  rule  on  the  American  plan  for  the  different 
provinces,  was  defeated.  In  defeating  it,  however,  the 
"red  demagogy  of  socialism"  united  with  the  "white 
demagogy  of  Carlism"  in  making  the  seven  months' 
life  of  the  so-called  Republic  of  1873-4  one  of  the  most 
turbulent  periods  in  Spain's  history  in  the  present  Cen- 
tury. Margall,  Salmeron,  and  Castelar  followed  each 
other  quickly  as  heads  of  the  Republic  between  June  8, 
J873,  when  Margall  was  chosen,  and  January  3,  1874, 
when  General  Pavia  dispersed  the  Cortes,  Castelar  re- 
signed and  the  Republic  collapsed.  "Glass,  handle  with 
care !"  was  the  label  which  Castelar,  at  the  beginning  of 


DECADENCE  OF  SPAIN  385 

Amadeo's  reign,  in  1871,  placed  upon  the  young-  im- 
ported Italian  monarch's  regime.  This  inscription 
would  do  for  an  epitaph  for  Castelar's  Republic. 

After  the  Cortes  had  been  dispersed  by  Pavia,  a  mili- 
tary dictatorship  was  set  up  under  Marshal  Serrano,  and 
another  Carlist  war  began.  Serrano  took  the  field  in 
person,  but  was  unable  to  break  through  the  strong  lines 
of  the  Carlists  at  Sommorostro  in  the  battles  of  March 
25  and  26,  but  receiving  reinforcements,  he  renewed  the 
attack  and  forced  the  pretender's  forces  to  abandon  all 
their  positions,  raise  the  siege  of  Bilboa  and  evacuate 
Portugalete  (May  i).  Concha,  in  command  of  the  army 
of  the  North,  was  defeated  in  a  three  days'  battle  (July), 
and  fell  fighting  on  the  field.  But  the  Carlists  neglected 
to  make  proper  strategetical  use  of  their  victory,  and 
were  barbarous  enough  to  shoot  a  number  of  their  pris- 
oners. Don  Alonzo,  brother  of  Don  Carlos,  on  cap- 
turing Cuenca  (July  15)  gave  it  over  to  plunder,  fire, 
and  sword.  Meanwhile  Serrano  had  been  unable  to  col- 
lect a  sufficient  force  to  drive  the  enemy  back  to  the 
French  frontier. 

Unexpected  allies  were  raised  for  Marshal  Serrano 
by  the  Carlists'  disregard  of  the  laws  of  civilized 
warfare.  The  pretender  had  caused  (June  30,  1874) 
Schmidt,  a  former  Prussian  captain,  while  acting  as 
correspondent  of  German  papers  in  Concha's  head- 
quarters at  Estella,  to  be  shot,  upon  his  falling  into  his 
hands,  although  he  was  a  non-combatant.  This  action, 
and  the  generally  barbarous  methods  by  which  the 
Carlists  waged  war,  led  Bismarck  to  take  diplomatic 
steps  against  them.  The  legitimists  in  France  had  been 
aiding  the  pretender  and  he  had  also  been  supplied  with 
funds  by  ultramontanists  in  Austria  and  Rome.  Bis- 
marck induced  the  other  powers  to  give  Serrano  official 

VOX,.  2 — 25 


386  MODERN  EUROPE 

recognition,  and  the  French  Government  enforced  a  real 
neutrality.  Germany,  by  sending  ships  of  war  to  the 
Bay  of  Biscay,  took  active  steps  to  prevent  the  smug- 
gling in  of  contraband  of  war. 

Meanwhile,  the  Nation  was  without  a  real  head, 
while  the  Carlists  still  won  scattering  successes,  which 
were  due  in  no  small  part  to  the  fact  that  many  people 
would  have  welcomed  any  King.  So  in  Murviedro 
(December  29,  1874)  General  Martinez  Campos,  who, 
like  most  of  the  officers,  was  an  adherent  of  the  deposed 
Bourbon  dynasty,  proclaimed  the  son  of  the  ex-Queen 
Isabella  King  with  the  title  Alphonso  XII.  The 
proclamation  was  received  with  joy.  The  army  accepted 
him  immediately  and  the  politicians,  seeing  that  resist' 
ance  was  useless,  acquiesced.  Serrano  resigned  the  Presi 
dency  and  a  Regency  was  formed  with  Canovas  del  Cas- 
tillos  as  its  chief  (December  31).  Alphonso  accepted, 
and,  on  January  15,  1875,  when  not  quite  eighteen  years 
of  age,  entered  Madrid  to  assume  the  monarchy. 

The  Carlist  revolt  was  finally  suppressed  in  1876. 
The  Spanish  Government  had  100,000  soldiers  in  the 
field,  while  the  pretender,  who  had  retreated  to  the  Val- 
ley of  Roncesvalles,  could  muster  scarcely  2,000  men. 
Resistance  was  hopeless  under  such  circumstances,  and 
February  28  Don  Carlos  crossed  the  French  frontier,  his 
followers  were  disarmed,  he  himself  was  invited  by  the 
French  Government  to  take  up  his  residence  in  some 
other  country,  and  the  insurrection  was  at  an  end. 

The  several  constitutions  which  Spain  has  had  influ- 
enced the  formation  of  the  one  which  was  promulgated 
in  June  30,  1876.  It  was  prepared  by  the  Government 
and  adopted,  after  discussion  by  an  Assembly  chosen 
under  limited  suffrage,  a  year  after  the  accession  of  Al- 
phonso XII.  The  rights  of  individuals  and  the  sacredness 


DECADENCE  OF  SPAIN  387 

of  private  property  were  insured  and  the  right  of  free 
speech  and  of  Assembly  were  guaranteed  to  all.  The 
Kingdom  was  made  a  constitutional  monarchy.  This  is 
largely  in  theory,  however,  as  ambiguous  or  qualifying 
clauses  place  the  real  power  in  the  hands  of  the  Sover- 
eign, although  all  his  decrees  must  be  countersigned  by 
at  least  one  of  his  Ministers,  and  he  is  dependent  upon 
his  Ministry. 

Worn  out  by  civil  war,  Spain  took  a  respite  from 
disorder  during  the  rule  of  Alphonso  XII.  When  he 
died  his  daughter  succeeded  him  until  the  birth  of  a 
posthumous  son,  who  was  born  (May  17,  1886)  after 
the  Queen  Dowager  Maria  Christina  had  been  declared 
Regent.  A  devoted  mother,  she  has  done  her  best  to 
secure  her  throne  for  her  son,  and  has  favored  the  Lib- 
eral party,  which  has  seemed  to  afford  the  best  guarantee 
of  his  retention  occupying  the  throne.  Confidence  in 
the  wisdom  of  the  Queen-Regent  and  her  Ministers  led 
to  the  raising  in  rank  of  the  diplomatic  representatives  of 
Germany,  Austria,  Italy,  and  England  from  that  of  Min- 
ister to  that  of  Ambassador,  thus  placing  Spain  nomi- 
nally among  first-class  powers.  Trial  by  jury  was  intro- 
duced by  the  Senate  and  put  in  force  in  Madrid,  May  29, 
1889.  Yet  the  reign  has  been  marked  by  many  internal 
disorders.  Don  Carlos  protested  against  the  recogni- 
tion of  the  baby  King,  and  (September  19,  1886)  there 
was  an  insurrection  in  Madrid.  Inundations  through- 
out the  central  and  southern  parts  of  the  peninsula 
(September,  1891)  rendered  over  100,000  persons  home- 
less. Widespread  rioting  was  excited  by  the  Octrois 
duties  (July  17,  1892).  A  cargo  of  dynamite,  exploding 
in  the  harbor  of  Santander  (November  4,  1893),  killed 
about  1,000  people,  and  wrecked  part  of  the  town.  This 
led  to  the  proclaiming  of  martial  law,  with  Captain- 


388  MODERN  EUROPE 

General  Campos  in  charge  of  the  military  forces,  but 
before  the  Anarchists  were  punished,  the  explosion  of  a 
bomb  in  a  theater  at  Barcelona  (November  7)  killed 
thirty  and  injured  eighty  persons,  while  another  explo- 
sion in  the  harbor  of  Santander  (March  22,  1894)  sac- 
rificed thirty  lives. 

Meanwhile  the  Kingdom  has  been  harassed  by 
financial  difficulties.  The  series  of  insurrections  in 
Cuba  culminated  in  the  war  beginning  in  1895,  which 
sacrificed  so  many  lives,  and  cost  Spain  so  much  treas- 
ure. The  war  with  America,  which  grew  out  of  the 
Cuban  dispute  (1898),  led  to  a  further  expenditure  of 
blood  and  treasure,  and  the  destruction  of  the  best  ships 
in  the  Spanish  navy.  The  close  of  the  Nineteenth  Cen- 
tury finds  Spain  bankrupt,  and  stripped  of  its  colonies, 
staggering  under  a  heavy  debt,  which  it  seems  impossible 
to  pay. 


RUSSIA'S   INCREASE   IN   POWER   AND 
INFLUENCE 

While  the  Nineteenth  Century  has  seen  the  decad- 
ence of  the  Latin  race  as  represented  by  France  and 
Spain,  it  has  seen  the  rise  to  power  and  influence  of  a 
new  rival,  the  Slav,  to  dispute  with  the  Anglo-Saxon  for 
the  supremacy  of  the  world.  In  spite  of  reverses  toward 
the  middle  of  the  century,  there  has  been  a  startling  in- 
crease of  Russian  power  during  the  last  100  years.  The 
acquisitions  of  the  Russian  Empire  during  the  Nine- 
teenth Century  are  greater  in  extent  and  importance 
than  the  whole  of  European  Russia  before  that  time. 
Her  frontier  has  been  advanced  toward  Stockholm  630 
miles,  toward  Berlin  700  miles,  toward  Constantinople 
500  miles,  toward  India  1,300  miles.  Her  territory  in 
Europe  comprises  more  than  one-half  that  Continent. 
It  stretches  across  Asia  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  A  well- 
known  traveler  gives  a  graphic  illustration  of  the  extent 
of  the  Empire  of  the  Cossacks  in  Asia.  He  says :  "You 
could  take  the  whole  of  the  United  States  from  Maine  to 
California,  from  Lake  Superior  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico, 
and  set  it  down  in  the  middle  of  Siberia  without  touch- 
ing its  borders.  You  could  then  take  Alaska  and  all  the 
countries  of  Europe  except  Russia  and  fit  them  in  little 
pieces  of  a  dessicated  map  round  the  edges  of  the  United 
States  as  it  lay  in  the  middle  of  Siberia,  and  you  would 
still  have  left  more  than  300,000  square  miles  of  Siberian 
territory."  "In  this  vast  region,"  says  Elizabeth  Worm- 
ley  Larimer  in  her  history  of  "Russia  and  Turkey  in  the 

389 


390  MODERN  EUROPE 

Nineteenth  Century,"  "is  every  variety  of  climate,  from 
arctic  to  tropical." 

It  was  held  by  many  persons  of  political  sagacity  that 
the  fall  of  Napoleon  transferred  the  Empire  of  the  world 
to  Russia.  Her  magnificent  success  had  raised  her  to  a 
place  of  commanding  authority  in  the  direction  of 
European  affairs.  A  century  before,  Russia  was  un- 
known to  the  politics  of  Europe;  now,  through  the  Holy 
Alliance,  she  was  their  supreme  arbitress.  Soon  the 
belief  was  widely  entertained  that  power  so  vast,  guided 
by  ambition,  unbounded  and  unscrupulous,  involved 
peril  to  all  other  European  nations.  Nowhere,  perhaps, 
was  this  impression  more  firmly  held  than  by  the  Rus- 
sians themselves,  who  now  indulged  in  arrogant  con- 
tempt of  the  institutions  and  customs  of  their  neighbors, 
and  claimed  for  their  own  arms  a  supremacy  which  was 
wholly  irresistible. 

For  forty  years  the  National  vanity  suffered  no 
abatement.  The  influence  of  Russia  continued  to  in- 
crease, and  it  was  centered  more  exclusively  in  the  per- 
son of  the  Emperor.  During  the  latter  years  of  the 
reign  of  Nicholas  his  despotism  was  absolute  almost 
beyond  example.  There  was  no  will  in  the  State  but 
his.  He  could  brook  no  contradiction;  toward  the  close 
his  most  trusted  counselors  dared  not  offer  any — so  ter- 
rible became  the  wrath  of  the  aged  tyrant.  Mute  sub- 
mission was  the  attitude  of  the  people.  Education  was 
discouraged  because  the  universities  might  be  nurseries 
of  liberal  tendencies.  The  slightest  breath  of  political 
criticism  in  a  newspaper  was  instantly  punished  by  the 
ruin  of  the  too  daring  journalist.  All  the  interests,  ma- 
terial and  intellectual,  of  a  great  Nation  were  fashioned 
according  to  the  unrestrained  pleasure  of  an  honest  but 
narrow  and  obstinate  man.  Nicholas  learned  to  dislike 


RUSSIA'S  INCREASE  IN  POWER  391 

Western  ideas.  Progress  and  culture  were  distasteful  to 
him.  He  wished  to  shut  out  all  foreign  influences,  and 
to  that  end  he  put  a  stop  to  the  extension  of  railways. 
He  avowed  his  contempt  for  the  arts  of  peace,  and 
deemed  it  the  grand  work  of  his  life  to  enhance  the  mili- 
tary greatness  of  Russia, 

The  Peace  of  Jassy,  in  1792,  extended  the  Russian 
frontier  to  the  Dniester;  and  after  further  war  the  Treaty 
of  Bucharest,  in  1812,  gave  Russia  the  possession  of 
Bessarabia,  and  brought  her  border  to  the  Pruth.  Mah- 
moud  II,  a  man  of  great  ability  and  vigor,  ruled  Turkey 
from  1808  to  1839.  In  pursuit  of  internal  reform  he 
resolved  to  get  rid  of  the  turbulent  Janizaries,  and,  hav- 
ing formed  an  army  upon  the  European  system,  Mah- 
moud  destroyed  the  dangerous  Prsetorians  by  massacre 
in  June,  1826.  The  Turks  lost  Greece.  In  1828  war 
with  Russia  began  again,  and,  after  alternations  of  suc- 
cess the  Russian  General  Diebitsch,  in  1829,  captured 
Salistra,  crossed  the  Balkans,  and  reached  Adrianople, 
and  the  war  ended  in  terms  that  further  weakened  the 
Ottomans.  Turkey  gave  up  to  Russia  much  of  the 
eastern  coast  of  the  Black  Sea,  and  the  virtual  possession 
af  Wallachia  and  Moldavia.  About  the  same  time  Rus- 
sia gained,  by  successes  over  Persia,  increased  command 
over  the  Caspian  and  the  Caucasus.  Mehemet  Ali, 
Pasha  of  Egypt,  and  really  master  of  both  Egypt  and 
Syria,  rebelled  against  the  Sultan,  in  1833,  and  marched 
through  Asia  Minor  to  within  120  miles  of  Constan- 
tinople. The  Porte,  in  distress,  accepted  Russian  aid 
and  Russian  soldiers  were  encamped  on  the  heights  of 
Scutari,  with  the  dome  of  St.  Sophia  before  them,  and 
the  waters  of  the  Golden  Horn  at  their  feet.  After  forc- 
ing Mehemet  Ali  to  retreat,  Russia  withdrew  her  troops, 
but  made  a  secret  arrangement  with  Turkey  (in  the 


392  MODERN  EUROPE 

Treaty  of  Hunkiar-Skelessi)  that  the  Dardanelles  should 
be  closed  against  the  armed  vessels  of  all  nations  except 
Russia.  The  other  powers  of  Europe  took  alarm  at 
Russian  encroachment,  and  in  1841  the  Treaty  of  Lon- 
don, signed  by  Turkey,  Russia,  Austria,  England,  and 
France,  provided  that  the  Dardanelles  should  be  closed 
against  all  ships  of  war  whatsoever,  so  long  as  Turkey 
should  remain  at  peace.  In  1849  Russia  obtained  an- 
other agreement  from,  Turkey,  which  allowed  the  Czar 
to  "protect"  Moldavia  and  Wallachia  whenever  he 
pleased. 

The  Russians  entered  upon  the  contest  with  Eng- 
land and  France  in  the  Crimean  War  convinced  that 
their  Emperor  and  his  army  were  invincible.  It  was 
impossible  to  believe  that  the  power  which  for  forty 
years  had  wielded  unlimited  authority  was  now  to  stoop 
to  defeat  and  humiliation.  The  Nation  took  up  arms  in 
the  fullest  confidence  that  their  Emperor  would  lead 
them  to  victory.  Nicholas  periled  upon  the  issue  of  the 
war  not  only  his  military  greatness,  but  the  whole  enor- 
mous fabric  of  despotism  which  he  had  builded  so  labori- 
ously. The  triumph  of  the  Western  powers  during  the 
Crimean  War  produced  a  vast  change  on  Russian 
opinion.  Not  only  was  the  believing  devotion  of  the 
people  to  their  Emperor  overthrown,  but  the  policy 
which  he  had  established  was  utterly  discredited.  The 
ruthlessness  of  his  despotism  was  lightly  regarded  in  the 
days  of  success;  now  that  the  blight  of  defeat  had  fallen 
upon  him,  its  enormous  evils  became  at  once  the  subject 
of  deep  and  universal  reprobation.  And  when  the 
ancient  monarch  had  passed  away  from  the  ruins  of  his 
political  system  (1855)  a  sense  of  relief  was  experienced. 
It  was  deemed  better  that  Nicholas  should  die;  for  he 


RUSSIA'S  INCREASE  IN  POWER  393 

could  never  have  adapted  himself  to  the  changes  which 
his  own  blind  obstinacy  had  rendered  inevitable. 

Under  the  rule  of  his  successor,  Alexander  II  (1855- 
1881),  the  despotic  system  of  Nicholas  was  to  an  im- 
portant extent  departed  from.  The  newspaper  press 
experienced  sudden  enlargement.  So  urgent  was  the 
demand  for  political  discussion,  that  within  a  year  or 
two  from  the  close  of  the  war  seventy  new  journals  were 
founded  in  St.  Petersburg  and  Moscow  alone.  The 
Government  censors  discharged  their  functions  with  the 
mildness  which  the  liberal  impulses  of  the  time  de- 
manded. For  a  brief  space  the  press  enjoyed  a  virtual 
freedom  from  restraint,  and  availed  itself  boldly  of  the 
unprecedented  opportunity.  Western  Europe  had  been 
shut  out  by  the  Emperor  Nicholas.  Its  liberal  ideas,  the 
history  of  its  recent  political  revolutions,  its  marvelous 
progress  in  science  and  the  arts — all  were  unknown  to 
the  Russian  people.  Educated  Russians  were  eager  to 
acquaint  themselves  with  this  long-forbidden  knowl- 
edge, and  a  crowd  of  journalists,  burning  with  a  love  of 
liberal  ideas,  hastened  to  gratify  the  desire.  An  en- 
franchised press  began  to  call  loudly  for  the  education  of 
the  people,  for  their  participation  in  political  power;  for 
many  other  needful  reforms.  Chief  among  these,  not 
merely  in  its  urgency,  but  also  in  its  popularity,  was  the 
emancipation  of  the  serfs. 

Forty-eight  million  Russian  peasants  were  in  bond- 
age— subject  to  the  arbitrary  will  of  an  owner — bought 
and  sold  with  the  properties  on  which  they  labored. 
This  unhappy  system  was  of  no  great  antiquity,  for  it 
was  not  till  the  close  of  the  Sixteenth  Century  that  the 
Russian  peasant  became  a  serf.  The  evil  institution  had 
begun  to  die  out  in  the  West  before  it  was  legalized  in 


394  MODERN  EUROPE 

Russia.  Its  abolition  had  long  been  looked  forward  to. 
Catherine  II  had  contemplated  this  great  reform,  and  so 
had  her  grandson,  Alexander  I;  but  the  wars  in  which 
they  spent  their  days  forbade  progress  in  any  useful 
direction.  Nicholas  very  early  in  his  reign  appointed  a 
secret  commission  to  consider  the  question;  but  the 
Polish  insurrection  of  1830  marred  his  design.  Another 
fruitless  effort  was  made  in  1836.  In  1838  a  third  com- 
mittee was  appointed,  but  its  work  was  suspended  by  "a 
bad  harvest,"  and  never  resumed.  Finally,  it  was 
asserted  that  the  dying  Emperor  bequeathed  to  his  son 
the  task  which  he  himself  had  not  been  permitted  to 
accomplish. 

Thus  when  Alexander  ascended  the  throne  the  gen- 
eral expectation  of  his  people  pointed  to  the  emancipa- 
tion of  the  serfs.  The  Emperor  shared  in  the  National 
desire.  At  his  coronation  he  prepared  the  somewhat 
reluctant  nobles  for  the  change  which  to  so  many  of 
them  was  unwelcome.  A  little  later  he  nominated  a 
committee  chosen  from  the  proprietors,  whose  duty  it 
was  to  frame,  in  accordance  with  certain  principles  laid 
down  for  their  guidance,  the  details  of  this  great  revolu- 
tion. Three  years  followed  of  discussion,  adjustment, 
revision,  and  then  the  decree  was  published  (February 
19,  1861),  which  conferred  freedom  upon  nearly  50,000,- 
ooo  Russian  peasants.  The  position  of  the  Russian  serf, 
although  it  had  much  to  degrade,  was  without  the  repul- 
sive features  of  ordinary  slavery.  The  estate  of  the  Rus- 
sian land-owner  was  divided  into  two  portions.  The 
smaller  of  the  two — usually  not  more  than  one-third — 
was  retained  for  the  use  of  the  proprietor.  The  larger 
was  made  over  to  the  village  community,  by  whom  it 
was  cultivated,  and  to  whom  its  fruits  belonged.  The 
members  of  that  community  were  all  serfs,  owned  by  the 


395 

great  lord  and  subject  to  his  will.  He  could  punish 
them  by  stripes  when  they  displeased  him;  when  he 
sold  his  lands  he  sold  also  the  population.  He  could 
make  or  enforce  such  claims  upon  their  labor  as  seemed 
good  to  him.  Custom,  however,  had  imposed  reasona- 
ble limitations  upon  such  claims.  He  selected  a  por- 
tion of  his  serfs  to  cultivate  his  fields  and  form  his  ret- 
inue. The  remainder  divided  their  time  equally  between 
his  fields  and  their  own;  three  days  in  each  week 
belonged  to  their  master,  and  three  days  belonged  to 
themselves.  Many  of  them  purchased  for  a  moderate  pay- 
ment the  privilege  of  entire  exemption  from  the  work  of 
their  owner.  It  was  customary  for  these  enterprising 
bondmen  to  settle  in  the  nearest  city,  where  occasionally 
they  attained  to  wealth  and  consideration.  Instances 
have  occurred  of  wealthy  bankers  and  merchants  who 
still  remained  the  property  of  a  master,  to  whom  a 
humiliating  recognition  of  their  servile  estate  was  peri- 
odically offered. 

The  lands  which  were  in  possession  of  the  villagers 
were  divided  by  lot  among  the  separate  families.  As 
the  number  of  claimants  fluctuated,  a  fresh  division  was 
made  every  ninth  year.  A  villager  never  lost  sight  of  his 
right  to  participate  in  the  common  inheritance.  He 
might  be  absent  for  years,  seeking  his  fortune  in  the  city, 
but  when  it  pleased  him  to  return  and  claim  his  interest 
in  the  lands  of  his  native  village,  the  claim  could  not  be 
resisted.  The  law  of  emancipation  bestowed  personal 
freedom  on  the  serfs.  For  two  years  those  who  were 
household  servants  must  abide  in  their  service,  receiv- 
ing, however,  wages  for  their  work.  Those  who  had 
purchased  exemption  from  the  obligation  to  labor  for 
their  lord  were  to  continue  for  two  years  the  annual  pay- 
ment. At  the  end  of  that  time  all  serfs  entered  on  pos- 


396  MODERN  EUROPE 

session  of  unqualified  freedom.  The  villagers  con- 
tinued in  occupation  of  the  lands  they  had  heretofore 
possessed;  but  they  became  bound  to  pay  a  purchase 
price  or  a  sufficient  equivalent  in  rent  or  in  labor. 

In  1862  Russia  completed  a  thousand  years  of  Na- 
tional existence,  and  Alexander  honored  the  great  anni- 
versary by  enacting  certain  further  reforms.  Hitherto 
the  administration  of  justice  had  been  incredibly  cor- 
rupt. All  judicial  proceedings  were  secret.  Govern- 
ment officers  could  at  pleasure  arrest  or  modify  the 
course  of  justice.  A  favorable  judgment  could  almost 
always  be  obtained  by  purchase.  Appeals  were  so  numer- 
ous that  a  wealthy  litigant  could  avert  almost  indefi- 
nitely a  judgment  which  was  not  acceptable  to>  him.  The 
judges  were  ignorant;  the  forms  and  precedents  by 
which  they  ought  to  be  guided  were  cumbrous  and  in- 
accessible. The  people  had,  with  reason,  utterly  lost 
confidence  in  the  courts  of  justice.  Suddenly  the  Em- 
peror applied  a  remedy  to  these  disorders  (September, 
1862).  In  future  competent  judges  were  to  be  appointed 
by  the  State;  all  judicial  transactions  were  to  be  public; 
Government  interposition  was  excluded;  trial  by  jury  in 
criminal  cases  was  established,  and  a  wholesome  limit  to 
the  right  of  appeal  was  imposed.  These  reforms  have 
proved  to  be  of  the  highest  value;  and  the  newly 
appointed  tribunals  soon  began  to  gain  the  confidence  of 
the  people. 

Hitherto  there  had  been  no  shadow  of  self-govern- 
ment even  in  municipal  or  provincial  affairs.  All  de- 
pended on  the  arbitrary  pleasure  of  the  Sovereign  and 
his  Ministers.  Outside  the  circle  of  individual  interests 
there  was  no  will  but  that  of  the  executive.  The  peasant 
ploughed  his  field,  the  merchant  directed  his  commercial 
affairs;  but  all  beyond,  whether  local  or  imperial,  was 


RUSSIA'S  INCREASE  IN  POWER  397 

under  the  irresponsible  control  of  the  Government. 
This  unhappy  condition  of  affairs  was  now  to  experience 
a  certain  measure  of  amelioration.  A  system  of  district 
and  provincial  assemblies  (Zemstvos)  was  organized. 
The  district  Assembly  was  chosen  by  all  classes  of  the 
community — proprietors,  citizens,  and  peasants.  These 
assemblies  elected  certain  of  their  own  members  to  form 
the  provincial  assemblies.  The  interests  confided  to  the 
new  organizations  were  wholly  local.  They  were  em- 
powered to  maintain  highways,  to  make  arrangements 
for  the  welfare  of  local  trade  and  industry,  to  levy  those 
taxes  which  government  had  imposed.  With  politics 
they  might  not  intermeddle,  and  the  Government 
watched  jealously  any  disposition  to  stray  into  this  for- 
bidden field.  The  ignorant  peasant  class  preponderates 
in  these  assemblies,  and  their  action  thus  far  has  not 
been  attended  with  any  notable  advantage  to  the  com- 
munity. The  Russian  peasant  manifests  little  desire  for 
the  possession  of  self-government  and  no  aptitude  for 
its  exercise.  His  performance  of  public  duty  does  not 
therefore  tend  to  educate  and  elevate  his  character.  He 
seems  to  be  contented  with  autocratic  rule  rather  than 
those  popular  institutions  which  are  the  glory  of  the 
enlightened  Western  nations. 

Nor  were  these  the  only  reforms  which  Alexander 
bestowed  on  his  people.  Flogging  in  the  army  was 
discontinued.  Some  measure  of  toleration  was  extended 
to  the  strange  and  fanatical  sects,  who,  by  their  irrepres- 
sible dissent,  had  long  troubled  the  Orthodox  Church. 
Considerable  pains  have  been  taken  to  improve  the 
church  herself  and  raise  the  standard  of  intelligence  in 
the  priesthood.  An  amnesty  permitted  the  return  of 
many  of  those  who  had  suffered  banishment  under  the 
savage  rule  of  Nicholas.  The  construction  of  railways 


398  MODERN  EUROPE 

was  promoted.  The  cost  of  a  passport  hitherto  eighty 
pounds,  four  hundred  dollars — was  reduced  to  a  trifle 
which  no  longer  restrained  persons  of  moderate  income 
from  traveling.  A  milder  and  more  liberal  spirit  per- 
vaded all  departments  of  administration. 

The  progress  of  Russian  reform  was,  however,  seri- 
ously interrupted  by  the  Polish  revolt  of  1863.  The 
Liberal  party  befriended  the  discontented  Poles,  but  a 
powerful .  sentiment  sprang  up  in  favor  of  maintaining 
unimpaired  the  National  unity  and  dignity.  Under  its 
influence  the  Poles  were  ruthlessly  suppressed,  and  Lib- 
eralism was  discredited. 

During  the  reign  of  Alexander  II  the  Russian  Em- 
pire was  widely  extended  in  the  Caucasus  and  in  Central 
Asia.  The  capture  of  Schmal,  the  famous  Lesghian 
chief,  in  1859  by  Prince  Bariatinski,  closed  the  long 
struggle  with  the  tribes  of  that  country.  The  Caucasus 
was  pacified,  many  of  the  Circassians,  unable  to  endure 
the  peaceful  life  of  cultivators  of  the  soil  under  the  new 
regime,  migrated  to  Turkey,  where  they  have  formed 
one  of  the  most  turbulent  elements  of  the  population. 
Russian  supremacy  was  established  gradually  over  all 
the  states  of  Turkestan.  In  1865  the  city  of  Tashkend 
was  taken,  and  (1867)  Alexander  II  created  the  Govern- 
ment of  Turkestan.  In  1858  General  Muravieff  signed 
a  treaty  with  the  Chinese  by  which  Russia  acquired  all 
the  left  bank  of  the  River  Amur.  A  new  port  was 
created  in  Eastern  Asia  (Vladivostok).  During  the 
Franco-German  War  of  1870-1871,  Alexander  main- 
tained a  sympathetic  attitude  toward  Germany;  a  policy 
which  was  continued  and  extended  in  subsequent  alli- 
ances, both  with  that  country  and  with  Austria.  The 
misgovernment  of  her  Christian  subjects  by  Turkey  and 
her  cruel  suppression  of  incipient  rebellion  in  1876  led 


RUSSIA'S  INCREASE  IN  POWER  399 

to  a  conference  of  the  European  powers  at  Constan- 
tinople. Turkey  rejected  proposals  made  to  her  by  the 
conference  with  a  view  to  the  better  administration  of 
the  subject  provinces;  and  Russia  to  enforce  these  con- 
cessions on  Turkey,  declared  war  in  April,  1877.  In 
1876  the  administration  of  the  Baltic  provinces  was 
merged  into  that  of  the  central  Government;  but  the 
autonomy  of  Finland  was  respected  and  even  extended. 

The  latter  part  of  the  reign  of  Alexander  II  was  a 
period  of  great  internal  commotion,  on  account  of  the 
spread  of  Nihilism,  and  the  attempts  upon  the  Emperor's 
life,  which  were  at  last  successful.  In  the  cities  in  which 
his  despotic  father  had  walked  about  fearless,  without  a 
single  attendant,  the  mild  and  amiable  Alexander  was 
in  daily  peril  of  his  life.  On  April  16,  1866,  Karakozoff 
shot  at  the  Emperor  at  St.  Petersburg;  in  the  following 
year  another  attempt  was  made  by  a  Pole,  Berezowski, 
while  Alexander  was  at  Paris  on  a  visit  to  Napoleon  III; 
on  April  14,  1879,  Solovioff  shot  at  him.  The  same 
year  a  train  in  which  he  was  supposed  to  be  traveling 
was  blown  up  by  an  elaborate  mine  beneath  the  railway, 
and  in  1880  a  destructive  explosion  was  effected  by 
dynamite  placed  beneath  the  imperial  apartments  in  the 
Winter  Palace  in  St.  Petersburg.  This  explosion  killed 
sixty  soldiers  and  wounded  forty;  but  the  Czar  escaped. 
On  March  13,  1881,  however,  he  was  injured  by  a  bomb 
thrown  at  him  while  riding  in  a  sleigh  near  his  palace, 
and  died  within  two  hours.  Five  of  the  conspirators, 
including  a  woman,  Sophia  Perovskaia,  were  publicly 
executed.  Thus  terminated  the  reign  of  Alexander  II, 
which  had  lasted  nearly  twenty-six  years.  He  died  leav- 
ing Russia  exhausted  by  foreign  wars  and  honeycombed 
by  plots. 

For  some  time  after  the  elevation  of  Alexander  III 


400  MODERN  EUROPE 

to  the  throne  he  lived  in  close  retirement  at  Gatschina, 
being  in  dread  of  Nihilists.  At  length  his  coronation 
took  place  at  Moscow,  May  27,  1883.  His  reign  was 
characterized,  in  contrast  to  the  Liberal  reforms  of  the 
last  reign,  by  numerous  reactionary  steps;  though  stren- 
uous efforts  were  made  to  put  an  end  to  the  colossal 
plundering  of  State  money  and  appropriation  of  State 
lands,  common  in  the  last  half  of  the  reign  of  Alexander 
II.  The  self-government  of  the  Zemstvos  was  limited 
and  put  under  the  authority  of  the  nobility;  the  justices 
of  the  peace  were  abolished,  and  an  attempt  at  reintro- 
ducing  manorial  rights  was  made.  The  redemption 
taxes  imposed  upon  the  liberated  serfs  were  slightly 
reduced,  and  banks  for  facilitating  the  purchase  of  land 
by  the  richer  peasants  were  created;  a  special  bank  for 
simplifying  mortgages  by  the  nobles  was  created  with 
the  support  of  the  State.  Literature  was  submitted  to 
a  most  rigorous  censorship,  and  education  to  a  still 
closer  supervision;  public  expressions  of  sympathy  with 
the  last  reign's  reforms  were  severely  repressed.  Rigor- 
ous measures  were  taken  against  the  Jewish  population 
of  the  Empire,  leading  to  wholesale  and  compulsory 
emigration,  and  the  autonomy  of  Finland  was  curtailed 
• — the  idea  of  the  reign  being  a  return  to  Nicholas  I's  idea 
of  the  centralization  of  the  State.  The  external  policy 
of  the  reign  was  that  of  armed  peace.  During  it  the 
Dreikaiserbund  (Austria,  Germany,  and  Russia)  was 
perfected.  Alexander  III  was  known  to  be  truly  de- 
voted to  peace,  and  only  his  strong  purpose  held  Russia 
back  from  war  in  more  than  one  international  conten- 
tion. Attempts  to  take  his  life  were  made  in  1887  by 
the  Nihilistic  societies,  and  in  October,  1888,  he  and 
his  family  narrowly  escaped  death  in  an  accident  upon 
the  Transcaspian  Railway.  Alexander  III  died  at 


RUSSIA'S  INCREASE  IN  POWER  401 

Livadia,  in  the  Crimea,  November  i,   1894,  his  eldest 
son  becoming  Czar  as  Nicholas  II. 

The  Czar  of  Russia  is  master  of  the  destinies  of 
his  people,  or  at  least  he  shapes  them  during  his  life- 
time. So  when  Alexander  III  died,  the  world  watched 
to  see  what  would  be  his  son's  policy.  Large  adminis- 
trative reforms  of  a  liberal  nature  were  expected  when 
he  ascended  the  throne,  for  he  had  been  educated  in 
modern  history,  sociology,  political  and  economic  sci- 
ence, and  during  the  famine  of  1891,  at  his  own  request, 
had  been  in  charge  of  the  work  of  succoring  the  starving. 
These  hopes  seemed  dashed  to  the  ground  when,  on 
January  29,  he  announced,  in  a  public  address:  "Let 
all  know  that  in  devoting  my  strength  to  the  welfare 
of  the  people,  I  intend  to  protect  the  principle  of  autoc- 
racy as  firmly  and  unswervingly  as  did  my  late  and 
never-to-be-forgotten  father."  Yet  the  new  Czar  has 
been  better  than  his  promise.  When  he  wedded 
Princess  Alix  of  Hesse,  grand-daughter  of  Queen  Vic- 
toria, he  withdrew  all  police  guards,  and  allowed  the 
people  to  see  his  progress  through  the  streets.  He  and 
the  Czarina  have  mixed  more  freely  with  the  people 
than  have  any  other  rulers  of  the  Nation.  There  has 
been  no  prospect  of  his  beginning  the  introduction  of 
Parliamentary  institutions,  but  he  has  given  indication 
that  he  intends  to  improve  the  condition  of  the  people. 
Jn  1897  he  promulgated  a  ukase  prohibiting,  under 
severe  penalty,  the  employment  of  any  form  of  labor 
on  Sunday,  or  on  the  fourteen  chief  feast-days  of  the 
orthodox  calendar.  He  decreed  that  eleven  hours  are 
to  constitute  the  maximum  working  day  for  adults,  and 
eight  hours  for  children.  The  Czar  has  also  showed 
himself  tolerant  to  other  religions,  and  canceled  his 

father's  decree  that  every  non-orthodox  person  in  Russia 
Voi,.  2—26 


402  MODERN  EUROPE 

who  married  an  orthodox  person  should  sign  a  docu- 
ment declaring  that  the  children  of  such  a  union  would 
be  baptized  and  educated  in  the  orthodox  faith. 
Restrictions  against  the  Roman  Catholic  faith  in  Poland 
have  been  removed,  and  furthermore,  Nicholas  II  has 
contended  that  the  Polish  rebellion  of  1863  has  been  fully 
atoned  for,  and  that  the  time  has  come  when  Poland's 
rights  and  privileges,  then  forfeited,  should  be  restored. 
The  appointment  of  his  intimate  friend,  Prince  Imere- 
tinski,  as  Governor-General  of  Warsaw,  was  an  indica- 
tion of  that  policy,  and  instructions  were  issued  that 
an  official  who  interfered  with  the  work  of  reconciliat- 
ing  Poland  would  be  removed.  Zemstvos,  or  County 
Councils,  have  been  established  in  Poland,  the  press 
censorship  has  been  made  less  rigid,  and  Sienkiewicz, 
the  author  of  "Quo  Vadis,"  was  made  censor.  As  a 
result  of  these  and  other  reforms,  when  Nicholas  visited 
Warsaw  he  was  received  with  a  spontaneous  burst  of 
popular  enthusiasm. 

It  is  probable  that  Nicholas  believes  that  the 
autocracy  of  the  Czar  is  best  suited  for  the  promotion  of 
reforms  and  the  improvement  of  the  condition  of  the  peo- 
ple. A  ukase  by  the  Czar  had  liberated  the  serfs  of  Rus- 
sia at  the  moment  when  America  plunged  into  a  long 
and  costly  war  to  settle  the  same  subject,  and  the  Gov- 
ernment paid  $520,000,000  as  indemnity  on  account  of  the 
serfs,  while  the  American  war  cost  $6,844,000,000.  In 
1897,  by  a  ukase,  Russia  settled  the  financial  question 
by  the  adoption  of  the  gold  standard.  So  easy  is  it  for 
a  Czar  to  make  a  law  in  Russia.  He  wills  it;  it  is  done. 

The  autocracy  of  the  Czar  has  aided  in  the  great 
industrial  development  of  Russia,  which  has  been  the 
most  marked  phase  of  the  Nation's  recent  history,  and 
which  has  been  so  great  as  to  disturb  the  statesmen  of 


RUSSIA'S  INCREASE  IN  POWER  403 

Europe  and  America.  The  Czar's  fostering  influence 
on  industries  has  been  irresistible.  In  1881  the  United 
States  produced  four  times  as  much  petroleum.  In 
1898  the  production  of  the  two  countries  were  about 
equal.  Before  the  Crimean  war  (1853)  agriculture  was 
of  the  rudest  kind,  and  machinery  was  unknown.  Since 
1850  the  agricultural  capital  has  quintupled.  The  value 
of  the  output  of  the  factories  has  tripled  since  1864. 
The  increase  has  been  especially  marked  since  the  acces- 
sion of  Nicholas  II.  Within  the  last  few  years  mills 
and  factories  have  sprung  up  in  all  parts  of  the  Empire. 
English  machinery  was  imported,  and  English  foremen 
placed  in  control.  The  English  engineer  was  supplanted 
by  German,  and  later  American  machinery  followed. 
By  this  time  Russia  had  started  schools  for  the  training 
of  a  special  class  of  engineers,  and  they  are  said  to  be 
making  as  good  machinery  as  can  be  made  in  America, 
England,  or  Germany. 

Whereas,  during  the  past  quarter  of  a  Century,  the 
French  Parliament  has  been  discussing,  without  reach- 
ing any  definite  solution,  the  question  of  the  Paris  Met- 
ropolitan Railroad,  the  Inter-Oceanic  Canal,  and  of  the 
proposed  harbor  for  Paris,  Russia  during  this  time  has 
been  transformed.  New  railways  have  been  built,  others 
extended,  harbors  built,  and  new  cities  have  arisen  much 
in  the  same  manner  as  in  Western  American  States. 
In  1895,  Russia,  not  including  Finland  and  Siberia,  had 
36,585  kilometers  of  line,  while  France  had  36,337  kilo- 
meters. On  January  I,  1898,  Russia  had  40,300  kilo- 
meters, including  Siberia.  The  great  Trans-Siberian 
line,  from  the  foot  of  the  Ural  to  Vladivostock,  on  the 
Pacific,  will  have  a  length  of  6,613  kilometers,  or  about 
4,200  miles,  and  will  be  by  far  the  shortest  route  from 
Europe  to  the  Orient. 


404  MODERN  EUROPE 

It  is  this  desire  to  peacefully  develop  her  enormous 
resources  that  led  to  the  proposal  of  the  Czar  (August 
28,  1898)  that  a  limit  be  put  upon  the  increase  in  arma- 
ment of  the  great  Nations  of  the  world.  The  Czar 
called  attention  to  the  financial  drains  they  entail  upon 
Europe,  and  he  invited  all  Nations  to  send  representa- 
tives to  a  conference  which  should  discuss  the  terms  of 
the  limitation  of  increase.  The  Czar,  however,  has 
found  a  better  weapon  than  war  in  diplomacy  of  an 
underground  nature.  The  firmness  and  audacity  of 
Russia's  methods  in  China  have  made  her  the  master 
of  the  Orient,  at  least  for  the  present.  The  Czar's  influ- 
ence was  shown  at  the  time  of  the  Cretan  insurrection, 
and  the  Armenian  affair,  when  he  interfered  to 
protect  Turkey;  far  the  present  policy  is  to  pre- 
vent Turkey's  dissolution  until  it  can  become  the 
prey  of  Russia.  The  details  of  the  treaties  made 
by  the  Czar  are  secret,  but  his  predominating  influ- 
ence in  most  of  Europe  is  recognized,  and  Russia's  voice 
is  a  power  in  European  conferences.  In  that  realm  of 
darkness  and  silence  over  which  the  Czar  rules  he  can 
plot  and  work  without  making  any  sign.  No  Parlia- 
ment is  there  to  ask  embarrassing  questions,  or  press 
to  print  dangerous  secrets.  He  is  the  State,  and  he  does 
not  tell  its  aspirations  and  purposes.  But  that  Russia's 
aim  is  the  domination  of  the  world  is  unquestioned. 
Already  the  Russians  boast  of  their  ultimate  success, 
while  in  England  and  America  the  question  is  asked: 
"Slav  or  Saxon — which  shall  rule  the  world?" 


GREAT  BRITAIN  DURING  VICTORIA'S  REIGN 

In  many  respects  the  reign  of  Queen  Victoria*  has 
been  the  most  remarkable  in  English  history.  In  the  mere 
matter  of  length  it  is  unique,  for  she  has  overtaken  and 
passed  the  record  of  her  grandfather,  and  reigned  over  her 
people  for  the  longest  period  ever  known  in  English  his- 
tory, if  not  indeed  in  that  of  the  world,  for  Louis  XIV,  the 
champion  in  this  respect,  was  for  years  in  nonage  and 
afterwards  under  a  regency.  She  has  outlived  all  the  Sov- 
ereigns who  were  in  existence  at  the  time  of  her  accession, 
as  well  as  many  who  succeeded  to  royal  robes  at  a  later 
date.  Two  Emperors  of  Germany,  three  rulers  of  Russia, 
Denmark,  and  Portugal,  not  to  mention  others,  have  dur- 
ing sixty  years  played  their  little  part  upon  the  European 
stage  and  departed  hence,  but  the  "Grand  Old  Lady  of 
England"  is  as  secure  in  the  affection  of  her  people  as  she 
was  half  a  Century  ago. 

Few  persons  are  in  a  position  to  speak  from  personal 
experience  of  the  actual  condition  of  England  at  the  time 
when  the  sailor  Prince  shuffled  off  this  mortal  coil.  All 
the  members  of  the  Privy  Council  which  existed  in  1837 
have  departed  hence;  every  peer  who  sat  in  the  Gilded 
Chamber,  but  two,  has  gone  where  titles  are  unknown; 
and  of  the  faithful  Commons  less  than  half  a  dozen  remain. 
And  what  a  contrast  does  the  England  of  to-day  present  to 
the  England  of  the  thirties !  Elizabeth,  who  stands  head 
and  shoulders  above  all  those  who  have  governed  England 
in  the  past,  worked  many  changes,  and  her  reign  was  a 
memorable  one;  but  beside  that  of  Victoria  it  must  pale 

*See  Volume  "Famous  Women." 

405 


406  MODERN  EUROPE 

its  ineffectual  fires.  All  around  there  has  been  disquiet  and 
unrest.  War  and  revolution  have  played  sad  pranks  with 
the  map  of  Europe,  and  the  record  of  its  ruling  houses; 
Sovereigns  have  come  and  Sovereigns  have  gone;  States 
have  been  formed  only  to  disappear;  the  balance  of  power 
has  veered  round  from  one  to  another;  but  amid  all  the 
changing  scenes  of  time,  England  has  enjoyed  a  splendid 
isolation  of  progress  upon  progress.  To  say  that  all  this 
is  due  to  the  simple  fact  that  Victoria  has  held  for  so  many 
years  the  position  of  Queen  would  perhaps  be  going  too 
far;  but  there  is  not  the  shadow  of  a  doubt  that  the  absence 
of  all  anxiety  as  to  dynastic  complications  and  the  form  of 
government,  together  with  the  immense  personal  popu- 
larity of  every  member  of  the  Royal  Family,  has  con- 
tributed largely  to  the  result. 

No  monarch  ever  came  to  the  throne  more  popular 
than  Queen  Victoria,  the  daughter  of  the  Duke  of  Kent, 
just  eighteen  years  old  (1837).  Her  youth  secured  sym- 
pathy; her  conduct  soon  won  for  her  affection  and  respect. 
Consideration  for  her  feelings  kept  the  ministers  in  power, 
as  the  Nation  did  not  wish  to  deprive  her  of  advisers  whom 
she  was  understood  to  like.  To  the  joy  of  Englishmen 
Hanover  was  separated  from  the  crown  by  passing  to  a 
male  heir.  An  outbreak  in  Canada  threatened  to  become 
serious,  and  the  first  measures  of  the  new  Sovereign  were 
directed  to  suppression  of  the  rebellion  there.  The  min- 
istry continued  to  exist  on  sufferance.  They  had  no  power 
to  use  and  carry  their  measures  or  to  support  their  serv- 
ants. In  May,  1839,  they  were  defeated  in  a  question 
about  Jamaica.  They  resigned;  but  Sir  Robert  Peel  made 
it  a  condition  of  taking  office  that  a  change  should  be  made 
in  the  ladies  of  the  Queen's  bedchamber.  The  Queen 
objected,  and  the  ministry  remained  in  their  posts;  but 
it  has  since  been  held  that  the  chief  officers  who  surround 


VICTORIA'S  REIGN  407 

the  person  of  the  Sovereign  are  changed  with  a  change  of 
ministry.  The  same  year  saw  the  introduction  of  penny 
postage,  the  invention  of  Rowland  Hill. 

Statesmen  had  long  been  occupied  with  the  question 
of  the  Queen's  marriage;  none  more  so  than  the  King  of 
the  Belgians,  uncle  of  the  Queen,  himself  a  widower  of  a 
Princess  who  was  heir  to  the  English  throne.  Prince 
Albert  of  Saxe  Coburg  Gotha,  the  Queen's  first  cousin, 
had  been  silently  educated  for  his  destinies.  The  mar- 
riage, which  took  place  in  February,  1840,  was  happily 
one  of  love.  The  Prince's  virtues  formed  the  real  founda- 
tion of  the  prosperity  of  the  reign;  and  it  wrill  be  recognized 
by  posterity  that  his  many-sided  culture  and  intellectual 
activity  have  left  an  indelible  stamp  on  the  minds  and 
character  of  Englishmen.  The  best  results  of  German 
thought  were  transfused  into  English  manliness,  an  effect 
which  the  union  with  Hanover  had  never  been  able  to 
accomplish. 

The  Government  regained  some  little  strength  by  its 
activity  in  crushing  the  attempt  of  Egypt  to  revolt  from 
the  Porte.  But  they  were  not  able  to  pass  measures  of 
importance,  and  the  debates  on  the  budget  overthrew 
them.  They  were  defeated  in  a  measure  which  anticipated 
the  repeal  of  the  corn  laws. 

The  coming  of  the  Conservatives  into  office  was  felt 
as  the  beginning  of  a  new  era.  The  prospect  of  war  abroad 
and  of  distresses  at  home  gilded  any  change  with  the  radi- 
ance of  hope.  Sir  R.  Peel,  at  the  outset  of  his  ministry, 
found  himself  compelled  to  provide  for  a  deficiency  of 
revenue  of  two  millions  and  a  half,  and  to  take  at  least 
some  steps  in  the  direction  of  free  trade  in  grain.  At  this 
time  the  poor  were  paying  a  large  price  for  their  daily 
bread  in  order  that  the  farmers  of  England  might  derive 
a  supposed  advantage  of  profit,  while  quantities  of  grain 


4o8  MODERN  EUROPE 

from  the  Baltic  and  Black  Sea  were  kept  out  of  England 
by  an  unreasonable  duty.  The  prime  minister  proposed 
an  alteration  of  what  was  called  the  sliding  scale — that  is, 
a  set  O'f  duties  varying  with  the  price  of  grain  in  the  Eng- 
lish market — his  object  being  to  maintain  the  price  of 
wheat  as  nearly  as  possible  at  sixty  shillings.  A  motion 
for  the  repeal  of  the  corn  laws  was  made  by  the  leaders 
of  the  Anti-Corn-Law  League,  Cobden  and  Villiers.  It 
was  lost  by  a  large  majority,  and  the  Government  pro- 
posals were  easily  carried. 

The  deficiency  in  the  revenue  was  made  worse  by  the 
outbreak  of  a  war  in  China  and  the  possibility  of  troubles 
on  the  Indian  frontier.  Sir  R.  Peel  determined  to  deal 
with  the  whole  matter  comprehensively,  and  began  that 
series  of  financial  reforms  which,  continued  by  his  pupil, 
Gladstone,*  have  done  much  to  raise  England  to  her  pres- 
ent height  of  prosperity.  The  chief  source  of  proposed 
revenue  was  the  income  tax,  at  that  time  new  and  violently 
opposed,  but  which  has  since  been  a  powerful  engine  in 
times  of  difficulty.  Besides  this,  he  revised  the  whole 
tariff  of  imports,  simplifying  them  wherever  it  was  possi- 
ble, and  preparing  the  way  for  free  trade.  Meanwhile 
(1841)  Afghanistan  had  been  punished  for  the  murder  of 
the  British  envoy,  but  the  English  did  not  care  to  retain  so 
useless  and  so  costly  a  possession. 

The  next  three  years  in  England  were  chiefly  occupied 
with  the  struggle  between  protection  and  free  trade,  but 
little  progress  was  made  with  this  question  in  the  session 
of  1843.  The  year  was  taken  up  with  discussions  on  fac- 
tory labor,  on  education,  on  church  rates,  with  the  visit  of 
the  Queen  to  the  King  of  the  French,  and  the  excitement 
at  Oxford  caused  by  the  defection  of  some  prominent  high 
churchmen  to  the  Church  of  Rome.  It  was  found  that  the 

*See  Volume  "Foreign  Statesmen." 


VICTORIA'S  REIGN  409 

financial  reforms  of  the  previous  session  had  been  a  bril- 
liant success.  Instead  of  two  millions  and  a  half  deficit, 
there  was  a  million  and  a  half  surplus  after  all  debts  had 
been  paid,  and  an  anticipation  of  a  still  larger  balance  for 
next  year. 

The  emancipation  of  the  Catholics  had  not  succeeded 
in  quieting  Ireland.  The  movement  for  the  repeal  of  the 
Union  was  still  in  full  vigor;  and  O'Connell  told  a  large 
meeting,  at  Tara,  that  within  a  year  a  Parliament  would 
be  sitting  at  College  Green,  in  Dublin.  Another  meeting, 
summoned  with  all  the  parade  of  military  organization, 
was  prohibited  by  proclamation,  and  prevented  by  O'Con- 
nell. He  was,  nevertheless,  tried  for  sedition  and  con- 
demned by  a  Protestant  jury  to  imprisonment  and  fine. 
The  judgment  was  reversed  after  a  tempestuous  scene  in 
the  House  of  Lords,  and  the  acquittal  of  the  great  agitator 
was  received  with  joy  throughout  Ireland.  In  the  next 
year  the  Government  did  an  act  of  justice  by  endowing 
the  Catholic  College  of  Maynooth. 

In  the  meantime  events  were  rapidly  moving  toward 
free  trade.  Sir  R.  Peel,  assisted  by  Gladstone,  went  on 
with  his  financial  reforms.  He  proposed  to  use  the  surplus 
produced  by  the  income  tax  in  reducing  the  taxes  on  com- 
modities. A  great  change  was  proposed  in  the  sugar 
duties.  The  agricultural  distress  of  the  year  gave  the  free 
traders  an  opportunity  of  enforcing  their  views,  while  a 
new  party  of  "Young  Englanders,"  led  by  Disraeli*  and 
Lord  John  Manners,  thought  that  the  landed  interests  were 
too  heavily  taxed  already,  and  ought  to  be  relieved. 

The  session  of  1845  closed  quietly  enough.  The 
increased  Maynooth  Grant  had  been  passed,  the  Jews 
admitted  to  municipal  offices,  the  Oregon  dispute  with  the 
United  States  arranged,  New  Zealand  pacified.  Suddenly 

*See  Volume  "Great  Statesmen." 


410  MODERN  EUROPE 

an  unexpected  crisis  arose.  A  disease  which  entirely 
destroyed  the  potato  plant  appeared,  first  in  England  and 
then  in  Ireland.  The  whole  subsistence  of  the  Irish  peas- 
antry was  destroyed.  Pressure  was  put  upon  the  Ministry 
to  admit  foreign  corn  free  of  duty.  The  country  was 
deluged  with  the  free  trade  tracts  of  the  Anti- Corn-Law 
League.  Sir  R.  Peel  was  convinced  that  protection  was 
no  longer  tenable,  but  his  Cabinet  would  not  follow  him. 
Lord  Stanley  resigned,  and  the  Ministry  broke  up.  Lord 
J.  Russell  was  unable  to  form  a  cabinet,  and  Sir  R.  Peel 
was  induced  to  take  office  again.  It  was  known  that  he 
would  meet  Parliament  in  1846,  pledged  to  support  the 
cause  of  free  trade. 

The  agitation  for  the  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws  began  in 
Manchester  toward  the  end  of  1836.  In  a  season  of  dis- 
tress it  appeared  to  some  of  the  most  influential  members 
of  this  rising  town  that  the  only  remedy  lay  in  free  trade, 
and  that  by  artificially  keeping  up  the  price  of  wheat,  the 
manufacturing  interests  of  the  country  were  sacrificed  to 
the  agricultural  interests.  Three  years  later  the  Anti- 
Corn-Law  League  was  formed.  Its  most  prominent  mem- 
bers from  the  first  were  Richard  Cobden  and  John  Bright, 
who  sacrificed  their  worldly  prosperity  in  a  great  measure 
to  the  work  of  converting  their  countrymen  to  the  princi- 
ples of  true  economy.  Very  large  sums  of  money  were 
collected  for  the  purposes  of  the  League.  A  free  trade  hall 
was  built  in  Manchester.  In  1843  the  Times  acknowl- 
edged that  the  League  was  a  great  fact,  and  compared  it 
to  the  wooden  horse  by  which  the  Greeks  were  secretly 
brought  within  the  walls  of  Troy.  At  the  end  of  1845 
it  was  stronger  than  ever  in  men,  money,  and  enthusiasm. 

On  the  assembling  of  Parliament  in  1846,  Sir  R.  Peel 
honestly  confessed  his  alteration  of  opinion.  In  Feb- 
ruary he  announced  a  fixed  duty  on  corn  for  three  years 


VICTORIA'S  REIGN  411 

and  afterward  its  entire  abolition.  The  free  traders 
attempted  to  dispense  with  this  delay,  but  they  were  beaten 
by  a  large  majority,  and  the  bill  passed  easily. 

The  Protectionists  determined  on  their  revenge.  A 
bill  for  the  suppression  of  crime  in  Ireland  gave  the  oppor- 
tunity. Lord  George  Bentinck  assailed  the  Ministers  with 
violence,  and  they  were  defeated  by  a  majority  of  seventy- 
three  on  the  very  evening  that  the  Corn  Bill  passed  the 
House  of  Lords.  The  Whigs,  who  had  assisted  Sir  R. 
Peel  in  carrying  free  trade,  now  joined  the  Protectionists 
in  turning  him  out.  The  Ministers  had  nothing  left  them 
but  to  resign,  and  Lord  John  Russell  was  ordered  to  form 
a  cabinet  The  new  Ministry  did  not  do  much  in  the  ses- 
sion of  1847.  They  were  obliged  to  propose  a  second  time 
the  measure  for  the  pacification  of  Ireland,  which  had 
brought  about  the  defeat  of  their  opponents.  A  bill  for 
shortening  the  hours  of  labor  in  factories  passed  without 
difficulty.  This  year  was  also  marked  by  the  death  of 
O'Connell  at  Genoa,  on  his  way  to  Rome,  and  by  the  vol- 
untary dissolution  of  the  Anti-Corn-Law  League. 

Although  no  great  question  was  before  the  Nation, 
Parliament  had  been  dissolved.  The  result  of  the  new 
elections  was  a  slight  increase  of  strength  to  the  Govern- 
ment. It  was  proceeding  to  consider  simple  measures  of 
practical  reform,  when  a  new  and  unexpected  danger 
demanded  its  attention.  A  revolution  which  broke  out  in 
France  in  1848  overthrew  the  monarchy  of  Louis  Philippe, 
and  established  a  republic  in  its  place.  The  contagion 
spread  throughout  Europe.  In  every  country  thrones  were 
tottering,  and  England  was  not  exempt  from  the  general 
disorder.  The  discontent  of  the  Irish  increased,  and  Smith 
O'Brien  took  the  place  of  O'Connell.  In  England  the 
excitement  was  shown  by  the  excitement  of  the  Chartists. 
The  Chartists  derived  their  name  from  the  sketch  of  a  new 


4i2  MODERN  EUROPE 

Reform  Bill,  which  had  obtained  the  title  of  the  People's 
Charter.  It  contained  six  principal  points:  I.  Universal 
suffrage.  2.  Annual  Parliaments.  3.  Vote  by  ballot.  4. 
Abolition  of  property  qualification  for  members  of  Parlia- 
ment. 5.  The  payment  of  members.  6.  Equal  electoral 
districts.  This  had  been  finally  drawn  up  in  1838,  but  for 
many  years  the  agitation  for  it  was  obscured  by  other 
matters.  In  1839  a  petition  containing  a  million  and  a 
quarter  names  was  presented  to  Parliament.  In  1840  an 
attack,  made  by  the  Chartists  on  Newport,  was  crushed  by 
the  firmness  of  the  mayor.  In  1847  the  Chartists  put  out 
their  full  strength  and  gained  several  seats  in  Parliament, 
and  especially  the  election  of  their  leader  Feargus  O'Con- 
nor for  Nottingham.  Inspired  by  their  successes,  the 
Chartists  determined  to  hold  a  monster  meeting  on  the 
tenth  o>f  April  on  Kennington  Common;  from  this  place 
they  were  to  march  and  present  a  huge  petition  to  the 
House  of  Commons.  They  even  talked  of  imitating 
France  in  the  establishment  of  a  republic.  The  Govern- 
ment determined  to  prevent  the  march.  Soldiers  were 
posted  in  all  parts  of  London  by  the  Duke  of  Wellington; 
170,000  special  constables  were  sworn  in;  the  public  of- 
fices, the  Bank  of  England  and  post  office  were  armed  to 
the  teeth.  All  their  designs  ended  in  failure.  The  meet- 
ing was  far  smaller  than  had  been  expected,  the  march  was 
given  up,  and  the  petition  of  five  million  and  a  half  of 
names  was  found  to  contain  only  a  third  of  this  number, 
and  those  mainly  fictitious.  The  movement  could  not  sur- 
vive the  ridicule  of  exposure. 

The  chief  subjects  of  discontent  which  existed  at 
the  accession  had  now  been  removed.  The  disabilities  of 
Catholics  had  been  taken  away,  the  corn  laws  had  been  re- 
pealed, the  Irish  had  been  pacified,  rebellion  in  England 
had  been  crushed.  The  country  entered  upon  a  career  of 


VICTORIA'S  REIGN  413 

peaceful  progress.  In  1849  the  navigation  laws,  which 
had  been  passed  by  Cromwell's  Government  in  1651,  and 
which  had  first  transferred  the  carrying  trade  from  Hol- 
land to  Great  Britain,  were  repealed.  This  was  a  legiti- 
mate extension  of  the  principles  of  free  trade.  Party 
spirit  was  hushed  for  a  time  by  the  death  of  Sir  Robert 
Peel  (July  2,  1850).  Some  slight  excitement  was  caused 
by  the  appointment  by  the  Pope  of  Roman  Catholic 
bishops,  under  an  Archbishop  of  Westminster,  and  the 
division  of  England  into  dioceses.  It  produced,  however, 
much  less  effect  than  was  anticipated.  All  thoughts  were 
concentrated  on  the  Great  Exhibition,  to  be  held  in  Hyde 
Park  in  1851.  The  design  and  execution  were  entirely 
the  work  of  Prince  Albert.  The  enterprise  was  a  brilliant 
success. 

Lord  John  Russell  was  succeeded  as  minister  by  Lord 
Derby.  But  a  dissolution  of  Parliament  brought  back  the 
old  ministry  with  Lord  Aberdeen  at  its  head  and  William 
E.  Gladstone  as  Chancellor  of  Exchequer.  His  budget 
inaugurated  a  new  series  of  financial  reforms.  He  formed 
a  plan  of  reducing  the  national  debt,  while  he  retained  the 
income  tax  in  order  to  make  it  easier  to  tax  more  equally 
the  chief  articles  of  daily  consumption. 

During  the  Crimean  war  between  Russia  and  Turkey 
(1854),  in  which  England  and  France  gave  support  to 
the  latter,  the  want  of  supplies  and  hospitals  roused  indig- 
nation in  England.  Discontent  ripened  into  suspicion. 
Mr.  Roebuck  proposed  an  inquiry  into  the  conduct  of  the 
Ministry.  Unable  to  meet  it  the  cabinet  of  Lord  Aberdeen 
resigned  and,  after  a  short  delay,  Lord  Palmerston  formed 
a  Government  not  very  different  from  the  previous  one. 
It  soon  lost  the  services  of  Gladstone  and  two  others,  but 
it  was  able  to  carry  on  the  war  with  undiminished  vigor. 

In  the  spring  of  1857  tne  Government  were  defeated 


4H  MODERN  EUROPE 

on  a  motion  of  Cobden's  condemning  their  action  with  re- 
gard to  a  war  which  had  broken  out  in  China.  Ministers 
determined  to  dissolve  Parliament  rather  than  to  resign, 
and  the  issue  placed  before  the  country  was  that  of  confi- 
dence in  Lord  Palmerston.  In  the  election  Cobden  and 
Bright  were  rejected  as  members  of  the  peace  party.  The 
liberal  cause  on  the  whole  was  supported  by  a  triumphant 
majority.  The  elections  were  followed  by  the  Indian 
mutiny. 

Although  the  French  alliance  was  popular  throughout 
the  country,  it  was  not  so  with  the  personal  character  of 
the  French  Emperor.  Men  felt  that  they  did  not  under- 
stand and  could  not  trust  him,  and  it  weakened  the  posi- 
tion of  the  Prime  Minister  that  he  was  believed  to  be  the 
Emperor's  intimate  friend.  An  unexpected  occurrence 
made  this  suddenly  manifest.  An  attack  made  by  Italian 
refugees  on  the  life  of  the  Emperor  Napoleon  in  January, 
1858,  was  the  occasion  of  a  demand  from  the  French  Gov- 
ernment that  England  should  cease  to  offer  facilities  for 
the  conspiracies  of  political  exiles.  Lord  Palmerston,  in 
deference  to  this  request,  proposed  to  alter  the  English  law 
of  conspiracy  to  murder.  When  this  was  rejected  by  a  ma- 
jority of  nineteen,  he  immediately  resigned,  and  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Lord  Derby  at  the  head  of  a  Conservative  Min- 
istry. The  year  was  occupied  by  various  internal  reforms ; 
the  choice  of  Indian  civil  servants  by  competitive  examina- 
tion was  extended,  the  Thames  was  purified,  a  telegraphic 
cable  was  laid  between  England  and  America.  It  appeared 
that  the  question  of  Parliamentary  Reform,  which  had 
been  stopped  by  the  Crimean  War,  but  had  never  sunk  into 
oblivion,  had  now  to  be  faced,  and  Lord  Derby  and  Dis- 
raeli braced  themselves  to  deal  with  a  problem  which  they' 
acknowledged  to  be  unwelcome. 

The  Reform  Bill  introduced  by  Disraeli  was  not  sat- 


VICTORIA'S  REIGN  415 

isfactory.  It  gave  the  franchise  to  a  number  of  different 
classes,  without  resting  it  on  any  broad  or  comprehensive 
basis.  A  resolution,  proposed  by  Lord  John  Russell, 
which  expressed  this  feeling,  was  carried  against  the  Gov- 
ernment by  a  majority  of  thirty-nine.  Ministers  deter- 
mined to  dissolve.  The  issue  before  the  country  was  not 
entirely  of  a  domestic  character.  War  had  broken  out 
between  France  and  Austria  for  the  liberation  of  Italy, 
and  the  feeling  of  England  was  strongly  with  Italian 
unity.  The  Liberals,  who  were  known  to  have  this  cause 
at  heart,  were  returned  in  a  majority  of  fifty,  and  imme- 
diately after  Parliament  met  Ministers  were  compelled 
to  resign,  defeated  in  a  vote  of  confidence.  This  was  the 
sixth  change  of  Ministry  which  had  taken  place  in  fifteen 
years. 

Lord  Palmerston  now  became  Prime  Minister,  with 
Lord  J.  Russell  as  Foreign  Secretary,  Gladstone  Chan- 
cellor of  the  Exchequer,  and  Lord  Granville  President  of 
the  Council  (June,  1859).  The  first  step  of  the  Govern- 
ment was  the  conclusion  of  a  commercial  treaty  with 
France,  based  on  the  principles  of  free  trade.  Cobden  had 
been  the  negotiator;  and  Gladstone,  in  a  speech  which 
announced  a  new  era  of  financial  policy,  expressed  the  long 
services  of  the  Free  Trader  in  language  of  universally 
accepted  praise.  The  Ministry  attempted  to  satisfy  the 
expectations  of  the  country  by  bringing  forward  a  Reform 
Bill.  It  was  as  simple  as  its  forerunner  had  been  com- 
plicated. It  proposed  a  franchise  of  £10  in  counties,  £6 
in  boroughs,  and  a  redistribution  of  seats.  The  languid 
interest  felt  in  it  by  the  Premier  was  a  sign  of  the  indiffer- 
ence of  the  country,  and  the  bill  was  withdrawn. 

In  1 86 1  the  Civil  War  broke  out  in  America*  between 
the  Northern  and  Southern  States  of  the  Union.  The 

*See  Volume  "American  History." 


416  MODERN  EUROPE 

matters  in  dispute  between  them  were  many  and  various, 
but  the  most  important  point  at  issue  was  the  question  of 
slavery.  The  English  people  generally  took  the  side  of 
the  South,  partly  from  a  supposed  community  of  feeling, 
and  partly  from  a  jealousy  of  the  United  States  and  a  wish 
to  see  her  dismembered.  This  feeling  was  intensified  by 
the  capture  of  two  Southern  envoys  while  under  the  pro- 
tection of  the  British  flag.  There  was  danger  of  war 
breaking  out,  but  the  Northern  States  submitted  to  an 
ultimatum  and  returned  the  prisoners. 

The  affair  of  the  "Trent,"  as  this  dispute  was  called 
from  the  name  of  the  ship  in  which  the  envoys  were  sail- 
ing, was  the  last  public  question  in  which  Prince  Albert, 
now  for  some  time  called  the  Prince  Consort,  was  engaged. 
After  a  few  days'  illness,  he  died  at  Windsor,  in  Decem- 
ber, 1 86 1,  at  the  age  of  forty-two.  The  grief  of  the  Eng- 
lish Nation  was  universal  and  spontaneous.  Only  grad- 
ually did  the  country  come  to  learn  that  he  had  been  King 
of  England  for  twenty  years,  while  no  one  knew  it. 

The  American  war  affected  England  in  two  ways. 
First,  the  ordinary  supply  of  cotton  to  her  manufacturing 
districts  was  cut  off,  and  the  great  distress,  known  as  the 
"cotton  famine"  was  felt  in  Lancashire.  The  operatives 
displayed  the  utmost  patience  and  self-control  under  their 
afflictions,  and  large  subscriptions  were  contributed  for 
their  support.  Lord  Derby  gave  the  services  of  his  genius 
to  the  organization  of  relief,  and  cotton,  the  threads  of 
which  were  of  a  shorter  length,  was  provided  from  India. 
Before  the  American  war  was  over  the  worst  pressure  of 
distress  was  passed.  The  other  trouble  was  of  longer 
duration.  A  ship  called  the  "Alabama"*  was  fitted  out 
from  an  English  dockyard,  notwithstanding  the  protest 

*  See  Volume  "  American  History." 


VICTORIA'S  REIGN  417 

of  the  American  Ambassador,  with  the  object  of  making 
war  on  American  commerce,  in  the  interests  of  the  South- 
ern States.  Americans  felt  that  the  negligence  shown  in 
not  stopping  this  vessel  expressed  only  too  clearly  the 
sympathies  of  England.  They  could  not  at  this  time  do 
anything  to  prevent  or  to  avenge  the  wrong,  but  when  the 
war  was  over  a  feeling  of  bitterness  was  left,  which  nearly 
led  to  an  open  rupture,  and  was  with  difficulty  appeased. 

Lord  Palmerston  died  in  October,  1865.  The  condi- 
tion of  parties  during  these  closing  years  was  remarkable. 
Popular  throughout  the  country,  the  Premier  was  trusted 
equally  by  the  Conservatives  and  Liberals.  The  policy 
of  a  long  life  was  the  earnest  of  his  liberalism;  and,  at  the 
same  time,  he  was  known  to  be  opposed  to  organic  reform. 
The  great  questions  which  were  agitated  in  later  years 
now  slumbered,  and  the  reform  of  the  representation, 
which  lay  at  the  root  of  all  other  measures,  was  deferred 
with  the  admonition  that  the  Nation  should  rest  and  be 
thankful  for  what  it  had  already  achieved.  A  new  elec- 
tion in  the  spring  of  1865  returned  a  solid  Liberal  majority 
with  a  few  Liberal  losses.  No  loss,  however,  was  so  great 
as  the  premature  death  of  Richard  Cobclen. 

Earl  Russell  succeeded  Lord  Palmerston  as  Premier; 
Gladstone  became  leader  of  the  House  of  Commons ;  the 
Ministry  in  other  respects  remained  unchanged.  The  his- 
tory of  this  administration  is  the  history  of  the  Liberal 
Reform  Bill.  The  bill,  introduced  by  Gladstone  in  March, 
1866,  gave  the  franchise  to  householders  of  the  value  of 
£14  in  counties  and  £7  in  boroughs.  It  was  evidently  a 
compromise,  and  was  not  heartily  supported  either  by  the 
cabinet  or  by  the  party.  A  section  of  the  Liberals,  called 
by  Bright  the  "Cave  of  Adullam,"  joined  the  opposition 
in  resisting  it,  and  in  June  the  Ministry  were  defeated  and 
VOL.  2 —  27 


418  MODERN  EUROPE 

resigned.  They  were  succeeded  by  a  Conservative  Gov- 
ernment, the  principal  members  of  which  were  Lord  Derby 
and  Disraeli. 

Lord  Derby  promised  a  safe  and  moderate  measure  of 
reform.  But  the  agitation  throughout  the  country  was 
very  great.  The  war  in  Germany,  which  in  six  weeks 
made  Prussia  instead  of  Austria  the  dominant  power  in 
that  country,  passed  almost  unheeded.  The  somewhat 
cruel  suppression  of  the  rebellion  in  Jamaica  by  Governor 
Eyre  was  condemned  by  advanced  Liberals.  The  laying 
of  a  telegraph  cable  between  Ireland  and  Newfoundland 
gave  hope  to  those  who  wished  for  a  union  of  affection 
between  the  two  mighty  continents.  In  July  the  Reform 
League  was  forbidden  to  hold  a  meeting  in  Hyde  Park, 
but  the  masses  who  had  accompanied  them  threw  down 
the  railings  and  pushed  back  the  police  who  would  have 
barred  their  passage.  The  Reform  addresses  of  Gladstone 
and  Bright  were  received  with  enthusiasm. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  session  of  1867,  Disraeli  pro- 
posed resolutions  which  were  to  be  the  basis  of  a  reform 
bill.  A  considerable  extension  of  the  franchise  was  con- 
templated, limited  by  a  system  of  plurality  of  votes.  Par- 
liament objected  to  this  method,  and  it  became  necessary 
for  the  Ministers  to  agree  in  a  definite  measure;  of  two 
alternative  courses,  Disraeli  expounded  his  measure  in 
March.  The  proposed  franchise  was  founded  on  real 
estate  taxes  paid,  and  not  on  rental.  The  franchise  in 
boroughs  was  given  to  all  householders  paying  taxes;  in 
counties  it  was  given  to  occupiers  of  property  taxed  at  £15 
a  year.  Besides  this,  the  franchise  was  given  to  all  men  of 
a  certain  education,  or  who  had  saved  a  certain  sum  of 
money.  In  some  cases  voters  were  allowed  a  double  vote 
in  respect  of  possessing  a  double  qualification. 

The  bill  was  violently  opposed  by  Gladstone,   who 


VICTORIA'S  REIGN  419 

objected  to  its  provisions  in  almost  every  particular,  but 
the  section  of  his  party,  who  formed  the  "Cave  of  Adul- 
lum"  declined  to  follow  him  in  procuring  the  defeat  of 
the  Government.  Notwithstanding  this,  the  measure  was 
gradually  changed  piece  by  piece  until  it  was  entirely 
altered.  The  abolition  of  compound  householders,  that  is 
of  those  whose  taxes  were  paid  for  them  in  the  lump  by 
their  landlords,  nearly  quadrupled  the  number  of  voters; 
lodgers  were  admitted  to  the  franchise,  the  county  fran- 
chise was  reduced,  and  the  distribution  of  seats  was 
changed.  The  bill,  as  it  was  passed  by  both  Houses, 
weary  with  argument,  at  the  end  of  July,  almost  reached 
the  limit  of  manhood  suffrage.  It  had  been  passed  by  a 
Conservative  ministry  and  Lord  Derby  described  it  as  a 
leap  in  the  dark. 

It  was  necessary  that  Parliament  should  meet  again 
in  the  autumn  of  1867  to  vote  supplies  for  an  expedition 
to  Abyssinia,  undertaken  to  release  some  Englishmen  who 
were  kept  in  prison  by  the  King.  The  prisoners  were 
released,  and  Magdala,  the  King's  capital,  destroyed. 
Early  in  the  session  of  1868  Lord  Derby  resigned  the  Pre- 
miership from  bad  health,  and  was  succeeded  by  Disraeli. 
It  soon  became  obvious  that  the  main  point  of  struggle 
between  the  two  parties  would  be  the  disestablishment 
of  the  Irish  Church.  At  the  end  of  March,  Gladstone 
moved  resolutions  to  that  effect.  The  Government  had 
been  defeated  by  small  majorities  before  the  Easter  recess. 
In  April  it  was  beaten  on  the  Irish  Church  question  by  a 
majority  of  eighty-five.  Parliament  was  dissolved,  and 
the  result  of  the  elections  was  a  signal  victory  for  the 
Liberals.  The  Government  did  not  wait  for  the  opening 
of  the  session,  but  resigned  their  offices,  and  just  before 
the  close  of  1868,  William  E.  Gladstone  became  Prime 
Minister. 


420  MODERN  EUROPE 

It  is  natural  that  in  England  Constitutional  changes 
should  be  followed  by  great  activity  in  administrative 
reform.  The  ministries  which  succeeded  the  Reform 
Bills  of  1832  and  1867  carried  a  number  of  measures  which 
could  only  have  been  carried  when  the  tide  of  public 
spirit  was  in  the  flood.  Both  ministries  soon  exhausted 
the  popularity  which  had  enabled  these  measures  to  be 
passed.  The  chief  members  of  Gladstone's  cabinet  were 
Lord  Hatherley,  Lowe,  Bruce,  Lord  Granville,  Bright,  and 
Childers.  During  its  five  years'  tenure  of  office  it  showed 
a  great  activity  in  every  branch  of  administrative  reform. 
This  could  only  be  maintained  by  a  large  majority  in  Par- 
liament, directed  by  a  chief  of  exceptional  ability,  at  a 
time  when  the  feeling  of  the  country  was  wrought  to  an 
unusual  strain.  The  first  efforts  of  the  Government  were 
directed  to  the  removal  of  Irish  grievances  by  the  dises- 
tablishment of  the  Irish  Church  and  the  regulation  of  Irish 
land.  The  country  had  determined,  by  the  elections,  that 
the  Irish  branch  of  the  Church  of  England  should  cease 
to  exist  under  State  protection.  The  working  out  of  that 
change  was  difficult  and  complicated.  The  arrangements 
proposed  by  Gladstone  were  passed  by  large  majorities 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  met  with  no  serious  oppo- 
sition in  the  House  of  Lords. 

The  Irish  Land  Act  passed  in  the  session  of  1870  was 
a  matter  of  greater  difficulty.  Its  object  was  to  give  such 
security  to  the  tenant  as  might  induce  him  to  spend  money 
in  improving  his  holding,  to  lend  money  to  landlords  to 
be  spent  in  improvements,  to  put  a  restraint  on  hasty  and 
unjust  evictions,  and  to  establish  a  ready  means  of  arbi- 
tration between  landlord  and  tenant.  The  bill,  though 
full  of  complicated  provisions  met  with  little  opposition  in 
either  House,  and  became  law  on  the  ist  of  August. 

The  same  session  was  occupied  with  another  measure 


VICTORIA'S  REIGN  421 

of  first-rate  importance.  W.  E.  Forster  produced  a  com- 
prehensive Education  Act  to  deal  with  primary  education, 
namely,  that  of  the  poorer  classes.  Time  was  given  for 
different  religious  denominations  to  supply  deficiencies  in 
existing  schools,  but  if  this  were  not  done  schools  boards 
were  to  be  created,  who  should  provide,  at  the  cost  of  the 
ratepayer,  a  cheap,  universal  and  unsectarian  education. 
The  result  has  surpassed  the  most  sanguine  hopes.  Every 
year  since  the  passing  of  the  Act  the  number  of  ignorant 
children  has  diminished. 

The  session  of  1871  was  not  idle.  Purchase  in  the 
army  was  abolished,  the  English  civil  service  was  made 
attainable  by  competition,  the  universities  were  thrown 
open  to  the  whole  country  without  regard  to  religious 
denominations,  trades  unions  were  recognized  by  law,  and 
the  powers  of  local  government  were  extended  to  country 
districts. 

In  1872  a  system  was  adopted  of  electing  members  of 
Parliament  by  ballot  or  secret  voting.  This  measure  had 
long  been  urged  by  the  Liberals  and  opposed  by  the  Con- 
servatives. 

The  session  of  1873  was  intended  by  the  Government 
to  remove  another  Irish  grievance  by  establishing  a  system 
of  Catholic  university  education.  The  measure  had  been 
carefully  prepared  by  Gladstone,  and  it  was  introduced 
with  good  hope  of  its  success.  But  it  was  soon  found  that 
it  satisfied  neither  party.  The  Government  was  defeated, 
and  the  Ministry  resigned.  Disraeli,  however,  refused 
to  take  office  and  the  seals  were  resumed  by  their  former 
holders.  A  few  changes  were  made  in  the  Cabinet  and 
a  Judicature  Bill  was  passed,  remodeling  the  whole  sys- 
tem of  English  judicial  procedure. 

The  Government  was  weakened  and  discredited. 
Seat  after  seat  was  won  by  the  Conservatives,  The  Lib- 


422  MODERN  EUROPE 

eral  majority  became  every  day  smaller  and  less  compact. 
At  last,  in  the  beginning  of  1874,  Gladstone  determined  to 
appeal  to  the  country,  and,  to  the  surprise  of  everybody, 
in  January  Parliament  was  dissolved.  In  five  years  the 
majority  of  Liberal  supporters  had  dwindled  from  116 
to  66.  The  result  of  the  elections  was  a  triumph  for  the 
Conservatives.  The  Cabinet  did  not  wait  for  the  meeting 
of  Parliament.  Disraeli  accepted  office  as  Premier,  sup- 
ported by  Lord  Derby,  Lord  Salisbury,  Lord  Carnarvon, 
Sir  S.  Northcote,  Cross,  and  Hardy.  Shortly  after  this 
Gladstone  announced  that  he  had  retired  forever  from  the 
leadership  of  the  Liberal  party. 

The  session  of  1874  passed  quietly  under  the  new  Gov- 
ernment. Its  principal  work  was  the  Public  Worship 
Regulation  Act,  introduced  by  the  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury. The  object  of  this  Act  was  to  restrain  the  extreme 
High  Church  clergy  from  using  ritual  which  imitated  the 
ceremonies  of  the  Roman  Church  against  the  wishes  of 
their  parishioners.  It  was  strongly  opposed  by  Lord  Sal- 
isbury and  Gladstone,  but  Disraeli  came  forward  in 
defense  of  it  at  the  call  of  Sir  William  Harcourt.  Experi- 
ence has  shown  that  the  Act  has  effected  less  good  and 
done  less  mischief  than  its  friends  and  enemies  expected 
from  it.  The  choice  of  a  successor  to  Gladstone,  who 
announced  his  retirement  in  January,  1874,  was  not  made 
without  difficulty.  The  two  candidates  were  Lord  Harr- 
ington and  Forster.  The  different  characters  of  the  men 
offered  different  qualifications  for  the  post,  but  Lord  Hart- 
ington  was  eventually  preferred  to  Forster  chiefly  because 
he  could  more  easily  make  way  for  the  return  of  his 
former  leader. 

The  new  Prime  Minister  cared  more  for  foreign  than 
for  domestic  politics.  The  next  five  years  of  his  govern- 
ment were  filled  with  events  which  brought  home  to  Eng- 


VICTORIA'S  REIGN  423 

lishmen  the  imperial  position  of  their  country  but  also 
made  them  realize  the  burden  of  responsibility  which 
attaches  to  it.  On  November  8, 1875, tne  Prince  of  Wales 
landed  at  Bombay,  the  first  step  of  a  royal  progress 
through  India.  In  the  same  month  the  Government  pur- 
chased £4,000,000  worth  of  shares  in  the  Suez  Canal. 
Thecontrolof  the  India  officeover  England's  great  depend- 
ency was  made  more  complete,  and,  on  the  resignation  of 
Lord  Northbrook,  Lord  Lytton  was  sent  as  Governor- 
General  to  carry  out  the  new  policy.  Early  in  the  follow- 
ing year  the  Queen  assumed  the  title  of  Empress  of  India, 
with  a  proviso  that  it  should  not  be  used  in  England. 
These  events  showed  the  presence  of  a  new  spirit  in  the 
Government,  which  was  regarded  by  some  with  enthus- 
iasm, by  some  with  ridicule,  by  others  with  dismay.  Then 
followed  the  Russian-Turkish  war  in  the  settlement  of 
which  England  played  a  prominent  part. 

The  cost  of  wars  in  Afghanistan  and  South  Africa 
made  the  Government  unpopular.  The  people  believed 
that  the  Imperial  policy  had  nowhere  been  a  success.  Its 
brilliancy  did  not  compensate  for  its  burdens.  A  series 
of  bad  harvests  had  made  money  scarce.  Attacks  on  for- 
eign policy  were  coupled  with  demands  for  an  extended 
suffrage.  The  popularity  of  the  Government  was  on  the 
wane.  The  distress  fell  with  a  special  heaviness  on  Ire- 
land, where  large  rents  had  in  many  cases  to  be  paid 
to  absentee  landlords  for  property  which  the  tenants  had 
improved.  A  cry  was  raised  "Get  rid  of  the  landlords," 
and  Charles  S.  Parnell  founded  a  Land  League  for  the  pur- 
pose of  buying  them  out.  Constitutional  agitation  was 
unfortunately  accompanied  by  dishonesty  and  outrage, 
which  were  met  by  the  Government  with  severe  methods 
of  repression. 

Parliament  was  now  approaching  its  close,  and  in  the 


424  MODERN  EUROPE 

autumn  recess  platforms  resounded  with  the  war  cries  of 
the  coming  fray.  Gladstone  led  the  attack  by  standing 
for  Midlothian,  and  conducted  a  fortnight's  campaign  of 
incessant  speaking.  The  Queen  opened  Parliament  in 
person  on  February  15,  1880.  The  Royal  Speech  told  of 
peace  in  Afghanistan  and  South  Africa,  and  of  the  suc- 
cess of  the  treaty  of  Berlin.  It  announced  no  measures 
of  importance,  but  the  dissolution  which  followed  in  March 
was  unexpected.  In  the  issue  before  the  country  Lord 
Beaconsfield  (Disraeli)  took  his  stand  on  the  necessity  of 
an  Imperial  policy  and  denunciation  of  Home  Rule.  Lord 
Hartington  put  forward  the  stability  of  Liberal  tradition, 
and  Gladstone  vigorously  foiled  the  policy  of  his  rival. 
The  elections  were  a  surprise  to  both  parties  but  they  spoke 
with  no  uncertain  voice.  The  new  Parliament  contained 
349  Liberals,  as  against  351  Conservatives  in  the  old. 
The  Conservative  opposition  was  now  243,  while  the  Lib- 
erals' opposition  in  the  late  House  had  been  250.  The 
members  of  the  Home  Rule  party  had  risen  from  51  to 
60.  Lord  Beaconsfield  determined  not  to  meet  the  new 
Parliament  and  only  delayed  his  resignation  until  the 
Queen  had  returned  from  the  Continent.  She  first  sent 
for  Lord  Hartington,  as  leader  of  the  opposition  in  the 
Commons,  but  on  the  representation  of  him  and  Lord 
Granville  summoned  Gladstone.  He  consented  to  form  a 
Government,  taking  for  himself  the  offices  of  First  Lord  of 
the  Treasury  and  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer.  The 
principal  members  of  his  former  Cabinet  returned  with 
him  to  power. 

Seldom  has  one  British  Government  succeeded  another 
with  a  stronger  contrast  of  principles  and  practice,  or  a 
wider  distinction  between  the  sources  from  which  they 
drew  their  confidence.  The  foreign  policy  of  Lord  Bea- 
consfield had  been  essentially  of  a  forward,  perhaps  even 


VICTORIA'S  REIGN  425 

of  an  aggressive  character.  The  party  which  had  come 
into  office  by  attacking  this  policy  was  bound  to  move  in 
a  different  direction.  Gladstone  inherited  a  legacy  of 
complications  in  Eastern  Europe,  in  Asia,  and  in  South 
Africa  which  needed  skill  and  patience  to  unravel.  The 
changed  spirit  of  the  new  Ministry  was  soon  apparent. 
A  declaration  was  elicited  from  Austria  to  the  effect  that 
she  had  no  intention  of  extending  her  authority  any  fur- 
ther than  the  Balkan  peninsula.  By  a  combined  demon- 
stration of  European  fleets  the  harbor  of  Dulcigno  was 
ceded  to  Montenegro  in  accordance  with  the  treaty  of 
Berlin.  A  similar  influence  was  used  to  keep  Greece  at 
peace  until  she  obtained  all  the  extension  of  territory  which 
she  could  get,  but  not  all  that  she  had  been  led  to  hope  for. 

In  Afghanistan  the  battle  of  Maiwand  was  fought  by 
2,500  troops,  of  whom  only  500  were  British,  against 
12,000  of  the  enemy.  It  was  followed  by  the  disastrous 
retreat  to  Candahar,  where  the  English  army  was  shut 
up  until  General  Roberts  relieved  them  from  Cabul.  In 
South  Africa  the  Boers  of  the  Transvaal,  encouraged  by 
the  opposition  of  the  Liberal  party  to  their  annexation, 
and  finding  the  colonists  occupied  with  a  war  against  the 
Basuto,  proclaimed  the  revival  of  their  Republic.  The 
English  generals  underrated  the  strength  of  the  Boers,  and 
their  skill  as  marksmen,  and  the  reverses  of  a  short  cam- 
paign culminated  in  the  disasters  of  Majuba  Hill  on  Feb- 
ruary 26,  1 88 1.  After  three  years'  negotiations  the 
Transvaal  Republic  was  restored  under  conditions  which 
secured  the  rights  of  the  native  races. 

A  different  policy  was  also  adopted  toward  Ireland. 
The  Queen's  Speech  announced  that  the  existing  Coercion 
Act  would  not  be  renewed.  A  Bill  was  passed  in  the  Com- 
mons to  put  a  stop  to  unjust  evictions,  but  it  was  rejected 
by  a  large  majority  in  the  House  of  Lords.  Excitement 


426  MODERN  EUROPE 

and  agitation  in  Ireland  increased.  A  system  of  "boy- 
cotting" grew  up,  by  which  landlords  and  agents  who 
violated  the  principles  of  the  Land  League  were  cut  off 
from  all  communication  with  their  fellowmen.  Crimes 
and  outrages  increased.  A  Coercion  Act  was  introduced, 
which  was  opposed  by  the  Irish  members  with  every  device 
of  obstruction.  One  sitting  continued  almost  without 
interruption  for  fifty  hours.  The  next  day  the  whole  of 
the  Irish  party  was  suspended  from  the  service  of  the 
House.  The  Coercion  Act  was  finally  passed  on  March  2. 

The  Government  had  determined  that  repressive  and 
remedial  measures  should  proceed  together,  and  on  April 
7,  1 88 1,  Gladstone  produced  his  Land  Bill.  It  established 
a  special  court  to  decide  upon  the  conflicting  claims 
between  landlord  and  tenant.  It  accepted  what  was  called 
the  principle  of  the  "F.  F.  F." — fair  rent,  free  sale,  and 
fixity  of  tenure.  Before  it  was  read  a  second  time,  Lord 
Beaconsfield*  had  died,  after  a  short  illness.  The  scope 
of  the  Bill  was  extended  by  the  Irish  party.  It  was  vio- 
lently attacked  in  the  House  of  Lords.  A  collision 
between  the  two  Houses  was  with  much  difficulty  avoided, 
and  the  Bill  became  law  in  the  middle  of  August.  The 
Coercion  Act,  however,  was  not  to  remain  a  dead  letter. 
On  October  13,  Parnell,  Dillon,  Sexton,  and  other  leaders 
of  the  Land  League,  were  arrested  in  Dublin  and  sent  to 
Kilmainham  Jail.  They  replied  by  calling  on  the  Irish 
people  to  pay  no  rent  while  their  leaders  were  in  prison. 
Secret  societies  began  to  take  the  place  of  open  communi- 
cation. 

During  the  spring  of  1882  neither  branch  of  the  Gov- 
ernment policy  toward  Ireland  seemed  to  be  successful. 
The  Lords  attacked  the  working  of  the  Land  Act,  and 
impeded  its  active  operation;  while  Forster  did  not  sue- 

*See  Volume  "  Great  Statesmen." 


VICTORIA'S  REIGN  427 

ceed  in  repressing  disorder  even  by  the  full  use  of  the 
Coercion  Act  Up  to  April  18  there  had  been  918  arrests, 
and  over  600  men  were  in  prison.  Parnell,  while  still  in 
Kilmainham,  drafted  a  Bill  to  relieve  distressed  tenants 
of  all  arrears  of  rent  up  to  the  passing  of  the  Land  Act  in 
1 88 1.  It  was  introduced  into  the  House  and  the  Gov- 
ernment appeared  to  approve  of  the  principles  on  which 
it  was  based.  At  the  beginning  of  May  the  Irish  mem- 
bers were  released  from  prison,  and  at  the  same  time  Lord 
Cowper  was  succeeded  as  Lord-Lieutenant  by  Lord  Spen- 
cer, while  Forster  resigned  the  Irish  Secretaryship. 
These  events  formed  what  is  known  as  the  "Kilmainham 
Treaty,"  an  arrangement  which  provided  that  the  Govern- 
ment should  take  steps  to  remit  arrears  and  establish  peas- 
ant proprietors  and  that  the  leaders  of  the  Irish  party 
should  do  their  best  to  pacify  the  country.  Forster 
strongly  opposed  this  new  policy,  and  his  arguments  were 
enforced  by  a  terrible  catastrophe.  On  May  6,  Lord  Fred- 
erick Cavendish  arrived  in  Dublin  as  the  new  Chief  Secre- 
tary. In  the  bright  summer  evening  as  he  was  walking 
through  Phoenix  Park  to  his  new  home,  he  was  murdered, 
together  with  Burke,  whowas  his  companion.  The  assassins 
drove  off  and  disappeared.  It  was  afterward  ascertained 
that  Burke  was  the  victim  aimed  at,  and  that  the  murder 
of  the  Chief  Secretary  was  unpremeditated.  The  next 
morning,  which  was  Sunday,  the  news  fell  with  startling 
horror  on  the  three  Kingdoms.  George  Trevelyan 
stepped  gallantly  into  the  breach.  A  new  Coercion  Act 
of  extreme  severity  was  passed,  with  little  opposition 
except  from  the  Irish  members.  At  the  same  time  an 
Arrears  Act  was  passed  in  the  teeth  of  the  House  of  Lords. 
Little  amelioration  was  experienced;  the  year  closed  amid 
outrages  and  murders. 

In  January,  1883,  twenty  men  were  arrested  in  Dub- 


428  MODERN  EUROPE 

lin,  one  of  whom  was  James  Carey,  a  member  of  the 
Dublin  Town  Council.  During  the  trial  of  the  prisoners 
he  turned  Queen's  evidence,  and  confessed  that  he  had 
planned  the  murders  in  Phoenix  Park  and  had  given  the 
signal  for  the  crime.  He  had  also  organized  plans  for  assas- 
sinating Forster  and  had  been  the  mainspring  of  the  attack 
upon  Field.  Five  of  the  prisoners  were  hanged,  and 
Carey  was  sent  by  the  Government  to  South  Africa, 
where  he  was  shot  by  a  man  who  followed  his  track  for 
vengeance.  There  were  other  signs  that  the  spirit  of 
rebellion  was  not  at  rest.  Explosions  of  dynamite  organ- 
ized by  American  sympathizers  with  Ireland  took  place 
at  the  public  offices  and  at  railway  stations.  This  scare 
continued  at  intervals  throughout  two  years',  and  culmi- 
nated with  the  wrecking  of  the  House  of  Commons  by  an 
explosion  in  the  beginning  of  1885. 

It  remained  for  the  Ministry  to  redeem  a  pledge  which 
they  had  given  on  their  accession  to  office,  of  reforming 
the  representation  of  the  people  in  Parliament  by  admit- 
ting the  country  laborers  to  suffrage.  Trevelyan  had  year 
after  year  brought  forward  a  motion  for  assimilating  the 
franchise  in  counties  to  that  in  boroughs.  The  new  Bill 
added  to  the  householder  and  lodger  franchise  already 
existing  in  boroughs  a  service  franchise  in  favor  of  per- 
sons who  occupied  buildings  without  being  either  the  own- 
ers or  tenants.  These  three  classes  of  franchises  were 
now  introduced  into  the  counties,  the  standard  of  the  occu- 
pation franchise  was  reduced,  and  faggot  votes  were  abol- 
ished. «  Scotland  and  Ireland  were  placed  upon  the  same 
footing  as  England,  although  with  respect  to  the  latter 
country  the  step  was  strongly  resisted  by  the  Conserva- 
tives. In  the  Lords  an  amendment  was  proposed  by  Lord 
Cairns  that  the  Bill  should  not  come  into  operation  until 
the  scheme  of  redistribution  which  was  to  accompany  it 


VICTORIA'S  REIGN  429 

had  been  agreed  upon.  This  was  accepted,  and  the  Bill, 
which  had  been  introduced  on  February  29,  1884,  finally 
passed  on  December  5  It  added  about  2,000,000  voters 
to  the  register. 

After  much  discussion  in  the  press  and  in  the  coun- 
try, Gladstone  produced  his  scheme  of  redistribution  at 
the  end  of  November.  It  had  been  drawn  up  in  concert 
with  Lord  Salisbury,  and  its  principal  features  were  that 
it  disenfranchised  a  large  number  of  small  boroughs,  estab- 
lished an  almost  uniform  system  of  one-member  constit- 
uencies, and  slightly  increased  the  numbers  of  the  House 
of  Commons,  It  was  read  a  second  time  the  day  before 
the  Franchise  Bill  became  law,  and  its  further  considera- 
tion was  adjourned  to  the  following1  year.  It  was  dis- 
cussed in  detail  from  March  to  June,  1885,  and  did  not 
become  law  until  the  Government  which  had  introduced 
it  had  ceased  to  exist.  This  catastrophe  was  the  result 
of  an  accident.  The  wear  and  tear  of  five  eventful  years 
had  produced  dissensions  in  the  Liberal  party,  and  an 
amendment  on  the  budget  proposals  of  Childers  was  car- 
ried against  the  Government  by  a  majority  of  twelve. 
Many  Liberals  were  absent  from  the  division,  and  thirty- 
nine  Home  Rulers  voted  for  the  opposition,  Gladstone 
resigned  office. 

Lord  Salisbury  was  Premier  of  the  new  Conservative 
administration,  in  which  Lord  Randolph  Churchill 
appeared  as  Secretary  for  India.  In  the  November  elec- 
tions the  Liberals  won  335  seats  against  249  Conservatives 
and  86  Home  Rulers.  The  Irish  holding  the  balance  of 
power,  rumors  became  current  that  Gladstone  had  been 
converted  to  Home  Rule.  When  Gladstone  came  to 
power  it  was  declared  that  Home  Rule  would  be  the  watch- 
word of  the  new  administration.  But  defections  followed, 
Chamberlain,  Trevelyan,  Bright,  and  other  Whigs  formed 


430  MODERN  EUROPE 

the  Liberal-Unionist  party  and  Home  Rule  was  defeated 
on  the  second  reading  of  the  bill. 

The  Conservatives  came  to  power  with  316  members, 
supported  by  78  Liberal-Unionists.  As  against  these 
there  were  191  Home  Rule  Liberals  and  85  Irish  Home 
Rulers.  Limited  local  government  was  announced  as 
Lord  Salisbury's  panacea  for  Ireland's  ills,  and  Parnell's 
Tenant  Relief  Bill  was  voted  down.  The  plan  of  cam- 
paign was  inaugurated,  while  the  Round  Table  Confer- 
ence failed  to  win  the  Liberal-Unionists  back  to  the 
deserted  Gladstonian  fold.  More  closure  rules  in  the 
House  of  Commons  were  passed  and  coercion  was  drasti- 
cally applied  to  Irish  agitation  and  lawlessness.  But  all 
politics  paled  in  June  before  the  celebration  of  the  Queen's 
Jubilee.  The  Nation  expressed  its  enthusiasm  in  bunting 
and  beacon  fires,  while  a  procession  of  Europe's  rulers, 
or  their  representatives,  marched  in  all  stateliness  around 
Victoria,  while  she  rode  to  Westminster  Abbey  to  return 
thanks  for  her  long  and  beneficent  fifty  years'  reign. 

The  Mitchelstown  riot  and  Mr.  O'Brien's  undergar- 
ments kept  Ireland  indignant  and  amused  by  turns.  The 
year  1888  was  one  pervaded  by  the  Irish  question.  A 
Local  Government  Bill  for  England  did  much  to  abate 
the  rule  of  Dogberry,  the  justice  of  the  peace  and  his  cor- 
rupt or  fossil  henchman,  Bumble,  the  Beadle.  The  spe- 
cial commission  on  "Parnellism  and  Crime"  met,  and  $50,- 
000,000  was  voted  in  Parliament  for  the  purposes  of 
the  Irish  Land  Purchase  Bill.  The  tercentenary  of  the 
Armada  lit  the  beacons  again  throughout  the  land  as  it 
did  when  the  Spaniards  menaced  the  realm  of  the  Virgin 
Queen. 

The  beginning  of  1889  was  marked  by  Pigott's  con- 
fession of  the  "Parnell  letter"  forgery.  The  dock-labor- 
ers' strike  paralyzed  London's  shipping  interest  for  a  time, 


VICTORIA'S  REIGN  431 

and  gave  John  Burns  the  opportunity  to  pose  as  a  "docker" 
and  to  win  some  fame  for  the  men's  victory.  A  charter 
was  granted  to  the  British  South  African  Company,  fated 
to  become  a  powerful  factor  in  the  affairs  of  Africa  in  the 
hands  of  Cecil  J.  Rhodes.  With  the  advent  of  1890,  Par- 
liament was  mainly  concerned  with  Irish  and  domestic 
affairs.  In  August  the  island  of  Heligoland  was  ceded 
to  Germany  in  return  for  African  concessions,  and  the 
close  of  the  year  marked  Parnell's  fall  from  power,  owing 
to  the  disclosures  of  the  O'Shea  divorce  case.  The  year 
.1891  was  remarkable  for  the  cessation  of  Irish  crime  and 
for  the  acute  dissensions  in  the  ranks  of  the  Home  Rule 
party.  Peace  pervaded  Ireland,  and  the  Government 
essayed  a  mild  Irish  local  government  measure.  Its 
appointive  officers  were  objectionable  to  the  Nationalists, 
and  though  carried  by  a  majority  of  92,  it  died  with  its 
second  reading.  (1892.)  Dissolution  of  Parliament 
drew  near,  and  the  Ulstermen  held  monster  mass  meetings 
to  protest  against  the  tender  mercies  of  Home  Rule  in  the 
hands  of  their  opponents.  The  elections  passed  and  Glad- 
stone came  to  power  with  355  supporters  (270  Gladston- 
ians,  4  Labor  members,  72  anti-Parnellites  and  9  Parnell- 
ites),  as  against  268  Conservatives  and  47  Liberal-Union- 
ists. Not  until  an  actual  division  did  the  Conservative 
Ministry  formally  resign.  The  numbers  showed  a  ma- 
jority of  40  for  the  venerable  statesman. 

In  Egypt  (1893)  the  arrogance  of  the  young  Khedive 
received  a  salutary  check  in  an  ultimatum  dispatched 
by  Lord  Rosebery,  warning  him  of  deposition  if  he 
resisted  British  policy  and  dismissed  his  Cabinet  with- 
out consulting  his  English  financial  adviser.  The 
Afghan  boundary  witnessed  the  Chitral  campaign, 
which  resulted  in  a  further  strengthening  of  India's 
scientific  frontier.  In  February  Gladstone  introduced 


432  MODERN  EUROPE 

his  second  Home  Rule  Bill.  Welsh  disestablishment 
and  local  option  movements  were  placated  by  measures 
embodying  the  theories  held  by  advanced  Radicals. 
Parliament  considered  the  Home  Rule  Bill,  which 
antagonized  the  Unionists  and  failed  to  satisfy  the  Irish 
party.  The  loss  of  the  battleship  Victoria,  with  twenty- 
two  officers  and  336  men,  was  one  of  the  most  appalling 
disasters  of  recent  times  in  the  history  of  the  British 
navy.  In  August  the  Bering  Sea  award*  was  made 
public.  While  a  technical  victory  for  England  on  each 
of  the  five  points  submitted,  the  award  established  lib- 
eral regulations  for  the  future  preservation  of  the  seal 
herd.  Debate  on  the  Home  Rule  Bill  occupied  eighty- 
two  days  in  the  House  of  Commons.  It  ended  with  a 
disorderly  melee,  and  the  measure  passed  its  second  read- 
ing by  a  majority  of  34  in  a  House  of  572.  The  bill 
went  to  the  Upper  House,  and  met  its  fate  in  a  rejec- 
tion of  419  to  41. 

The  year  1894  was  made  memorable  by  the  retire- 
ment of  Gladstone*  from  the  leadership  of  his  party. 
Vexed  by  the  rejection  of  his  Home  Rule  measure  by 
the  Lords,  disgusted  with  the  quarrels  and  dissensions 
among  his  Irish  allies,  the  veteran  statesman  laid 
the  mantle  of  leadership  on  Lord  Rosebery,  and  turned 
to  his  books  with  an  ardor  which  belied  his  years. 
Home  Rule  for  Scotland  was  essayed  in  April,  and  a 
vigorous  campaign  against  the  Lords  inaugurated.  The 
formal  opening  of  the  Manchester  Ship  Canal  by  the 
Queen,  and  the  opening  of  the  vast  Tower  Bridge  by 
the  Prince  of  Wales,  were  events  of  national  and  local 
significance.  Troubles  in  the  Transvaal  between  the 
Boers  and  the  English  began  to  grow  serious,  while  the 

*  See  Volume  Foreign  Statesmen," 


VICTORIA'S  REIGN  433 

Venezuelan  boundary  took  an  acute  phase,  owing  to 
Venezuela's  invasion  of  the  disputed  strip.  A  brief  cam- 
paign in  Waziristan  ended  in  favor  of  the  Indian  troops. 

Welsh  disestablishment  was  again  essayed  in  1895, 
an  Irish  Land  Bill  introduced,  and  Home  Secretary 
Asquith  introduced  a  stringent  Factories  and  Work- 
shop Bill  into  Parliament.  The  fall  of  the  Rosebery 
Ministry  was  precipitated  by  a  catch-vote  on  the  army 
estimates.  Lord  Salisbury  came  to  power  at  the  head 
of  a  distinctly  Unionist  Ministry,  with  a  general  elec- 
tion impending,  and  a  well-defined  sentiment  against 
Home  Rule  prevalent.  Parliament  convened  after  the 
general  election,  with  411  Conservatives  and  Liberal- 
Unionists,  as  against  259  Gladstone  Liberals,  Labor 
members,  and  Home  Rulers.  The  leaders  in  Lord  Salis- 
bury's Cabinet  were  Joseph  Chamberlain,  the  Duke  of 
Devonshire,  and  A.  J.  Balfour.  The  Ministry  had 
hardly  settled  to  work  when  President  Cleveland's  Vene- 
zuelan message*  was  in  its  hands.  Much  diplomatic 
correspondence  ensued,  but  the  whole  matter  resolved 
itself  into  a  cause  for  arbitration,  and  preparations  of 
evidence  at  once  began. 

The  year  1896  was  memorable  as  marking  the 
Queen's  reign  as  the  longest  of  any  ruler  of  the  British 
Isles,  and  remarkable  for  the  disturbances  in  South 
Africa  which  ended  with  the  Jameson  raid.  The  early 
months  were  occupied  with  the  Venezuelan  question, 
Armenian  affairs,  and  naval  defense.  John  Dillon  was 
chosen  as  leader  of  the  anti-Parnellite  faction  of  Home 
Rulers,  and  a  military  expedition  to  Ashantee  cost  the 
life  of  Prince  Henry  of  Battenburg  and  plunged  the 
royal  household  into  grief.  In  October  Lord  Rosebery 
astonished  many  by  his  resignation  of  the  Liberal  leader- 

*  See  Volume  "  American  History. 
Vol..  2  —  28    . 


434  MODERN  EUROPE 

ship.  At  home  and  abroad  all  was  peace,  with  the 
exception  of  the  Anglo-Egyptian  successful  operations 
in  Egypt,  and  the  Nation  rejoiced  with  the  Queen  on 
the  attainment  of  the  sixtieth  year  of  her  reign. 

Diplomatic  relations  with  Venezuela  were  resumed 
in  March,  1897.  Four  Irish  members  were  suspended 
from  Parliament  for  persisting  in  an  irregular  discussion 
of  the  financial  relations  between  England  and  Ireland. 

The  celebration  of  the  Queen's  Diamond  jubilee 
was  begun  (June  20),  and  the  British  Naval  Review 
was  the  greatest  demonstration  of  the  kind  ever  made. 
In  October  the  Government  of  India  notified  the  British 
Cabinet  that  it  would  not  consent  to  the  opening  of  the 
mints  of  that  country  to  the  free  coinage  of  silver. 
During  the  Parliamentary  session  of  1898  the  most 
important  measure  was  the  Irish  Local  Government 
Bill,  elections  under  which,  held  in  1899,  gave  promise 
that  a  new  era  of  partial  self-government  had  begun  in 
Ireland.  Liberals  and  Conservatives  alike  mourned 
the  death  of  Gladstone,  May  12,  1898.  The  Nation 
awoke  to  a  new  appreciation  of  his  greatness. 

During  the  Victorian  Era  it  will  be  noted  that  there 
has  been  a  great  change  both  in  the  position  of  Eng- 
land and  in  the  character  of  the  questions  which  have 
excited  public  interest.  Still  mistress  of  the  sea,  and 
possessed,  through  its  colonies,  of  an  Empire  distrib- 
uted in  every  corner  of  the  globe,  England  has  found 
enough  to  do  in  the  preservation  and  improvement  of 
this  gigantic  domain,  and  has,  as  far  as  possible, 
abstained  from  interference  in  Continental  quarrels. 
Once  and  again  has  it  shown  its  influence.  In  1848, 
the  year  of  revolutions,  and  in  the  subsequent  consoli- 
dation of  Italy,  its  sympathies  were  not  hidden,  but 
there  was  no  thought  of  active  interference.  It  allowed 


VICTORIA'S  REIGN  435 

the  United  States  to  settle  its  disputes  uninterrupted. 
It  adopted  the  same  attitude  of  non-intervention  in  the 
Prussian  wars  against  Denmark,  against  Austria,  and 
against  France.  It  has  only  been  in  questions  which 
seemed  to  touch  the  safety  of  its  Eastern  Empire  that 
it  has  drawn  the  sword.  The  Crimean  war  was 
avowedly  for  the  maintenance  of  Turkey  as  a  check 
upon  Russia,  which  was  threatening  the  road  to  India. 
Of  the  same  class  have  been  the  wars  in  Egypt  and 
Afghanistan.  Still  more  directly,  when  India  itself  burst 
into  insurrection,  was  England  called  upon  to  inter- 
fere and  engage  in  the  victorious  but  terrible  campaigns 
which  marked  the  suppression  of  the  mutiny.  The 
other  wars — and  they  are  not  few,  though  petty — have 
all  been  connected  with  mercantile  and  colonial  inter- 
ests. The  questions  which  have  chiefly  moved  men's 
minds  have  been  of  a  social  or  mercantile  character. 
The  extension  of  the  electoral  franchise,  the  reform  of 
municipalities,  the  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws,  the  estab- 
lishment of  free  trade,  the  improvements  of  the  condi- 
tion of  the  working  classes,  the  regulation  of  strikes  and 
trade  unions,  a  National  system  of  education,  and,  of 
late  years,  the  question  of  the  management  of  Ireland, 
have  been  the  points  around  which  political  interests 
have  centered.  They  are  fitting  questions  to  occupy  a 
democracy.  To  that  phase  of  political  life,  in  one  way 
or  other,  England  is  fast  hastening. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  posterity  will  look 
back  upon  the  Victorian  age  as  one  of  the  richest  in 
the  history  of  England.  Indeed,  though  it  is  not  so 
bright  as  some  with  military  glories,  its  sky  is  adorned 
with  a  most  significant  and  expanding  rainbow  of  popu- 
lar and  reforming  legislation.  It  is  splendid  with  the 
triumphs  of  all  the  arts  of  peace,  and  it  can  fairly  boast 


436  MODERN  EUROPE 

in  literature  not  only  an  unexampled  abundance  of  bril- 
liant ability,  but  some  things  worthy  of  the  best  days. 
This  period,  above  all,  has  seen  the  completion  of  the 
English  constitutional  system.  For  more  than  half  a 
Century  the  subjects  of  the  British  Empire  have  at 
home  lived  under  a  Sovereign  who  has  never,  in  the 
smallest  degree,  sought  to  interfere  with  the  principle 
of  self-government  involved  in  Parliamentary  rule.  Her 
Prime  Ministers  have  been  chosen  and  retained  in  office 
in  subjection  to  the  will  of  a  majority  of  the  House  of 
Commons,  and  the  English  system  of  party  government 
has  thus  brought  to  the  head  of  affairs  the  men  who  were 
in  succession  indicated  by  the  votes  of  the  people. 


EUROPEAN    ART    IN    THE    NINETEENTH 
CENTURY 

Science  has  changed  the  conditions  of  agriculture, 
industry,  and  trade  during  the  Nineteenth  Century, 
working  wonderful  reforms  in  the  social  condition  of 
the  people.  The  "Achievements  of  the  Nineteenth 
Century  in  Science  and  Industry"  are  told  in  another 
volume  of  this  series,  those  in  literature  are  set  forth 
in  still  another,  while  the  work  of  the  philosophers  whose 
thought  has  revolutionized  the  world  will  be  found  in 
the  volume,  "Great  Philosophers."  The  fact  that  a 
statement  of  the  results  in  these  departments  have  been 
thought  worthy  of  two  separate  volumes  in  this  "His- 
tory of  the  World,"  and  a  large  portion  in  another,  are 
in  themselves  evidences  of  the  progress  which  has  been 
made  in  this  direction.  The  improvement  in  the  con- 
dition of  the  people  which  has  followed  scarcely  needs 
mention  when  its  evidences  are  so  abundant  at  every 
hand.  It  remains,  then,  for  the  present  historian  to 
give  here  some  details  of  the  progress  in  European  art, 
especially  music,  which  is  necessary  to  the  completion  of 
the  general  scheme  of  this  work. 

Music,  which  made  rapid  strides  in  the  Eighteenth 
Century,  became  one  of  the  principal  arts  during  the 
Nineteenth,  and  has  attained  a  supremacy  which  has 
tempted  its  votaries  to  subordinate  all  other  arts  to  it. 
German  music  has  maintained  its  supremacy  in  almost 
all  Nations. 

Louis  von  Beethoven  (1770-1827)  is  held  by  most 
critics  to  be  one  of  the  greatest  of  all  musicians.  He 

437 


43S  MODERN  EUROPE 

was  a  prodigy  of  precocious  ability,  playing  the  violin 
excellently  at  eight  years  of  age,  and  composing 
sonatas  at  thirteen.  He  was  instructed  in  composition  at 
Vienna  by  Haydn,  and  began  to  write  his  great  works 
in  1 80 1.  In  his  later  years  he  was  perfectly  deaf. 
Beethoven  gave  a  new  character  to  instrumental  music, 
improving  even  Mozart,  and  displaying  the  utmost  bold- 
ness and  richness  of  imagination  in  his  symphonies, 
overtures,  quartettes,  sonatas,  and  other  compositions. 
He  wrote  also  a  splendid  opera,  "Fidelio,"  an  oratorio, 
"The  Mount  of  Olives,"  and  the  exquisite  song,  "Ade- 
laide." 

Karl  Maria  von  Weber  (1786-1826)  wrote  operas, 
overtures,  sonatas,  and  pianoforte  symphonies,  and 
.became  Director  of  the  German  Opera  at  Dresden  in 
1816.  His  great  opera,  "Der  Freischiitz,"  appeared  in 
Berlin  in  1821,  and  "Euryanthe"  at  Vienna  in  1823. 
"Oberon,"  written  for  Covent  Garden  Theater  at  Charles 
Kemble's  request,  was  produced,  under  the  composer's 
direction,  in  April,  1826.  The  gifted  and  famous 
master's  health  had  been  declining  under  lung  disease, 
and  he  died  soon  afterward  in  London,  where  he  was 
buried,  in  the  Moorfields  Catholic  Chapel.  Franz  Peter 
Schubert  (1797-1828),  one  of  the  greatest  modern  com- 
posers, was  born  at  Vienna.  His  ballads  and  songs  be- 
ing among  the  best  things  extant.  In  his  symphonies  and 
other  compositions  for  stringed  instruments  and  for  the 
piano  he  worked  in  the  vein  of  Beethoven,  and  is  remark- 
able for  poetic  feeling,  originality,  pure  melody,  and  rich- 
ness of  fancy.  Schumann's  (1810-1856)  intense  applica- 
tion to  work  overcame  his  brain,  and  he  died  in  an 
asylum.  His  compositions  are  very  highly  esteemed  in 
Germany,  where  he  is  looked  upon  as  the  founder  of  a 
new  school  which  disregards  the  older  masters.  He 


EUROPEAN  ART  439 

wrote  the  cantata,  "Paradise  and  the  Peri,"  several 
symphonies,  and  smaller  pieces.  Richard  Wagner,  who 
died  in  1883,  was  the  chief  representative  of  the  new 
musical  lights  in  Germany.  Aiming  at  intense  realism, 
he  is  held  by  many  to  be  simply  grotesque,  but  regarded 
by  his  admirers  as  a  genius  of  the  highest  order.  His 
operas,  "Tannhaiiser"  and  "Lohengrin,"  are  among  his 
chief  works.  Louis  Spohr  (1784-1859)  is  famous  as  a 
composer  for  the  violin  in  solos  and  concertos;  he  wrote 
operas  ("Faust,"  "Jessonda,"  and  others)  of  high  merit; 
his  oratorio-,  "The  Last  Judgment,"  is  a  grand  and  elab- 
orate work.  His  music,  from  its  want  of  melody,  is 
not  popular,  and  derives  its  renown  from  the  taste  of  the 
scientific  musicians  and  critics.  He  is  the  author  of  an 
admirable  and  complete  work  on  violin  playing.  One 
of  the  greatest  of  modern  composers  was  Giacomo 
Meyerbeer  (1791-1864).  He  was  a  precocious  genius, 
and  played  on  the  piano  like  a  master  when  he  was  nine 
years  old.  His  first  operas  failed,  as  the  public  taste 
ran  in  the  direction  of  Italian  music.  Meyerbeer  then 
went  to  Italy,  and  wrote  many  operas  there,  which  were 
well  received,  as  he  had  rapidly  acquired  the  new  style, 
between  1818  and  1824.  He  then  settled  in  Paris, 
where  his  famous  "Robert  le  Diable"  was  produced, 
with  triumphant  success,  in  1831.  It  was  found  that 
the  new  composer  had  in  himself  the  gifts  of  all 
schools — the  strength  and  massiveness  of  the  German, 
the  liveliness  of  the  French,  the  brilliancy  of  the  Italian. 
Meyerbeer's  subsequent  works  confirmed  this  exalted 
estimate  of  his  powers.  His  splendid  "Les  Huguenots" 
created  an  unparalleled  excitement  on  its  production  at 
Paris  in  1836.  "Le  Prophete"  appeared  in  1849, 
"L'Etoile  du  Nord"  in  1854,  "Dinorah"  in  1858,  and 
"L'Africaine"  in  1865,  alter  the  composer's  death. 


440  MODERN  EUROPE 

Felix  Mendelssohn  (1809-1847),  grandson  of  the  famous 
Jewish  philosopher,  Moses  Mendelssohn,  the  friend  of 
Lessing,  played  well  on  the  piano  and  composed  ably 
before  his  tenth  year.  He  was  known  soon  to  the  world 
by  his  overture  to  the  "Midsummer  Night's  Dream/' 
and  had  a  great  reception  when  he  came  to  England 
in  1829.  He  visited  Paris  and  Italy,  and  began  his 
famous  "Songs  Without  Words"  before  1832.  He 
then  took  the  highest  position  as  an  orchestral  con- 
ductor at  great  musical  festivals,  and  his  band  at  Leipsic 
was  the  finest  in  Germany.  His  great  oratorio,  "St. 
Paul,"  was  first  produced  at  Diisseldorf  in  1836,  and 
then  came  the  "Lobgesang,"  or  "Hymn  of  Praise," 
composed  in  celebration  of  the  4ooth  anniversary  of  the 
invention  of  printing.  In  1843  his  music  to  the  "Mid- 
summer Night's  Dream"  appeared  at  Leipsic.  Men- 
delssohn's oratorio,  "Elijah,"  was  first  performed  at 
Birmingham  in  1846,  under  his  direction. 

Italy  has  been  the  birthplace  of  many  famous  com- 
posers. Luigi  Cherubim  (1760-1842),  in  early  life, 
acquired  fame  as  a  composer  of  operas,  and  devoted 
himself  later  to  sacred  music,  in  which  he  produced  his 
splendid  "Coronation  Mass,"  and  an  equally  grand 
"Requiem."  Vincenzo  Bellini  (1802-1835)  is  univer- 
sally known  by  his  beautiful  melodies  taken  from  his 
most  popular  works,  "Norma,"  "I  Puritani,"  and  "La 
Sonnambula."  Many  of  the  greatest  singers  of  Italian 
opera  rose  to  fame  in  the  performance  of  these  sweet 
strains  of  music  from  the  sunny  south,  the  outpourings 
of  a  pure  and  gifted  soul.  Antonio  Rossini  (1792-1868), 
one  of  the  greatest  writers  of  Italian  opera,  began  his 
musical  career  as  a  choir-boy  at  Bologna.  For  the  pur- 
pose of  writing  operas  he  specially  studied  Haydn  and 
Mozart,  and  his  first  success  was  "Tancredi,"  produced 


EUROPEAN  ART  441 

at  Venice  in  1813,  and  received  with  enthusiasm  all  over 
Europe.  He  now  poured  forth  operas  in  rapid  succes- 
sion. His  exquisite  "II  Barbiere  di  Siviglia"  appeared 
at  Rome  in  1816.  Rossini's  rapidity  of  composition  was 
marvelous,  and  he  produced  several  operas  in  a  year. 
One  of  his  finest  productions  "Semiramide,"  came  out 
at  Venice  in  1823.  In  1824  he  settled  at  Paris,  and  in 
1829  produced  his  masterpiece,  "William  Tell."  This 
great  work  is  graceful  in  melody,  rich  in  its  harmony, 
and  varied  in  its  instrumental  scoring.  But  it  was 
coldy  received  at  Paris,  and  he  made  a  vow  (which  he 
kept)  that  he  would  never  write  another  opera.  His 
"Stabat  Mater,"  a  religious  piece,  appeared  in  1832. 
Gaetano  Donizetti  (1798-1848)  gained  European  fame 
by  "Anna  Bolena,"  produced  at  Milan  in  1830,  and  soon 
followed  by  the  charming  "Elisir  d'  Amore."  Then 
came  "Lucrezia  Borgia,"  and  the  equally  famous  "Lucia 
di  Lammermoor,"  produced  at  Naples  in  1835.  In  1840 
"La  Favorita"  appeared,  and  was  badly  received  in 
Paris,  but  its  merits  have  been  since  fully  recognized. 
"Don  Pasquale"  appeared  at  Paris  in  1843,  and  is  a 
charming  work.  Giuseppe  Verdi,  a  still  (1899)  living 
Italian  composer,  is  famous  for  his  popular  operas,  "La 
Traviata"  and  "II  Trovatore." 

Auber,  the  charming  French  opera  writer,  was  born 
at  Caen  in  1782,  and  died  at  Paris  in  1871.  The  famous 
Scribe  was  the  skillful  composer  of  plots  and  dialogues 
for  Auber's  lively  music,  which  is  thoroughly  French  in 
character,  full  of  graceful  and  piquant  expression. 
"Masaniello"  is  a  well-known  serious  opera  of  Auber's, 
but  his  greatest  talent  lay  in  such  comic  operas  as  "Fra 
Diavolo" — a  universal  favorite.  Gounod,  the  French 
composer,  is  famous  for  his  opera,  "Faust,"  the  favorite 
with  most  prima  donnas,  and  several  sacred  works.  The 


442  MODERN  EUROPE 

Hungarian,  Liszt  (1811-1886),  and  the  Pole,  Chopin 
(1810-1849),  were  composers  of  magnificent  music  of 
a  serious  nature,  though  the  latter  won  fame  by  his 
waltzes. 

In  painting  and  sculpture  much  good  work  has  been 
done  under  the  inspiration  of  the  great  masters,  although 
there  have  been  no  names  to  place  alongside  Michael 
Angelo,  Raphael,  and  Leonardo  da  Vinci.  A  revival 
of  French  painting  came  with  the  style  of  Louis  David, 
who  was  at  the  height  of  his  power  during  the  great 
Revolution,  and  died  in  1825.  Among  the  greatest 
of  his  pupils  were  the  historical  painter,  Baron  Gros 
(1771-1835),  Ingres  (1781-1867),  and  the  portrait 
painter,  Baron  Gerard  (17701837).  This  classic  school 
was  rivaled  by  the  artists  of  the  new  romantic  style, 
Delacroix  (1799-1863),  Delaroche  (1797-1856),  and  the 
battle  painter,  Horace  Vernet  (1789-1863).  That  pro- 
lific genius,  Gustave  Dore,  was  remarkable  for  brilliant 
conception  and  facile  execution.  Meissonier  and 
Gerome  are  eminent  as  genre  painters.  Rosa  Bonheur 
is  renowned  for  her  animals.  Corot's  landscapes  have 
few  rivals. 

Germany,  in  William  von  Kaulbach  (1805-1874),  has 
had  one  of  the  greatest  mural  painters  of  modern  times. 
A  pupil,  at  Diisseldorf,  of  Cornelius,  and  attained  fame 
as  a  painter  of  frescoes,  or  pictures  executed  in  water- 
colors  upon  a  freshly  plastered  wall.  Fresco  painting  is 
a  field  for  the  true  poet  painter,  and  Kaulbach,  in  this 
department,  revived  some  of  the  glories  of  Raphael  and 
Michael  Angelo.  1837  he  painted,  in  sepia,  his  famous 
"Battle  of  the  Huns,"  in  which  spirits  of  the  warriors 
whose  corpses  lie  under  the  walls  of  Rome  are  repre- 
sented as  continuing  the  combat  in  the  air.  In  1846 
he  completed — in  the  Pinaeothek,  the  famous  picture 


EUROPEAN  ART  443 

gallery  formed  by  Louis  I  of  Bavaria,  at  Munich— his 
colossal  oil  painting,  the  "Fall  of  Jerusalem."  At 
Berlin  and  at  Munich  Kaulbach  produced  many  other 
works  in  the  noblest  style  of  art.  Peter  von  Cornelius 
was  born  at  Diisseldorf  in  1783,  and  lived  till  1867.  He 
displayed  his  grandeur  of  conception  in  some  of  his 
earliest  work,  was  the  reviver  of  fresco  painting,  and 
the  founder  of  a  new  school  of  German  art.  In  1819  he 
became  Director  of  the  Academy  of  Painting  at  Diis- 
seldorf, and  was  then  intrusted  with  the  painting  of  the 
walls  of  the  Glyptothek — the  great  sculpture  gallery — 
at  Munich.  In  1825  he  became  head  of  the  Academy  at 
Munich.  In  one  of  the  great  halls  of  the  Glyptothek 
— the  Hall  of  Heroes — the  frescoes  represent,  on  a  colos- 
sal scale,  the  leading  events  of  the  "Iliad."  In  the  Hall 
of  the  Gods,  the  Grecian  mythology  is  symbolized. 
The  "Last  Judgment,"  in  one  of  the  churches  at  Munich, 
is  magnificent. 

Belgium  produced  two  great  historical  painters  in 
Hendrik  Leys  and  Louis  Gallait.  Holland  has  given  to 
the  world  Alma  Tadema,  remarkable  for  his  skill  in  treat- 
ing subjects  which  illustrate  the  old  civilization  of  Greece, 
Rome,  and  Egypt. 

Thorwaldsen,  the  great  Danish  sculptor  (1770-1844), 
studied  at  Rome  under  Canova,  and  was  recognized  as  one 
of  the  greatest  sculptors  of  modern  times,  and  executed 
works  for  all  parts  of  Europe.  The  latter  part  of  his  life 
was  spent  at  Copenhagen,  where  the  Thorwaldsen 
Museum  contains  about  three  hundred  of  his  works.  His 
chief  success  was  with  subjects  from  Greek  mythology. 
Among  his  best  known  works  are  the  bas-reliefs  "Day" 
and  "Night,"  and  the  colossal  lion  near  Lucerne,  in  mem- 
ory of  the  Swiss  guards  who  fell  in  defense  of  the 
Tuileries  in  the  great  French  Revolution. 


441  MODERN  EUROPE 

In  England  among  the  most  notable  artists  must  be 
named  Turner  (1775-1851),  the  number  of  whose  land- 
scapes is  immense,  Edward  Matthew  Ward,  Mulready, 
Maclise,  Webster,  Rossetti,  Millais,  and  M.  Holman  Hunt, 
who  were  formerly  called  pre-Raphaelites,  because  they 
endeavored  under  the  influence  of  John  Ruskin  to  lead 
painting  back  to  the  traditions  that  existed  before  Raphael; 
Leighton,  Cole,  Long,  Burne-Jones,  and  many  others 
whose  work  is  not  inferior  to  that  of  any  of  the  other 
schools  of  Europe. 

Art  has  even  penetrated  to  Russia,  where  a  school 
has  been  founded  that  portrays  Russian  life  in  a  natural 
manner.  The  names  of  Verestchagin  and  Gay  are 
known  for  peculiarly  Russian  art  by  all  lovers  of  art. 


AWAKENING  OF  ASIA 

The  largest  of  the  continents  is  Asia.  Its  area  is 
greater  than  that  of  both  North  and  South  America  com- 
bined. Its  population  exceeds  that  of  all  the  rest  of  the 
globe.  There  civilization  had  its  earliest  development, 
so  far  as  investigation  has  been  able  to  ascertain.  The 
close  of  the  Nineteenth  Century  sees  it  the  scene  of  a 
conflict  of  the  great  powers — a  conflict  at  present  peaceful 
but  which  may  at  any  moment  become  warlike — and 
Europe  waits  for  Asia's  complete  subjection  to  its  political 
control.  Europe  already  dominates  Asia  by  virtue  of  the 
superior  intelligence  of  the  Occident  to  that  of  the  Orient. 

From  the  ancient  history  of  Asia  to  the  modern  is  a 
great  gap.  The  ancient  history  of  the  great  Oriental  peo- 
ples who  there  laid  the  foundations  of  the  system  that 
now  threatens  the  political  extermination  of  their  descend- 
ants, has  been  sketched  in  the  volume,  "Ancient  and 
Mediaeval  History." 

A  new  epoch  in  Asia's  history  began  after  the  develop- 
ment of  European  navigation,  when  Portuguese  ships, 
rounding  the  Cape,  founded  the  first  European  colonies  in 
India.  They  were  soon  followed  by  the  Spaniard,  the 
Dutch,  the  French,  the  Danes,  and  the  British,  all  endeav- 
oring to  seize  the  richest  colonies  in  Asia,  and  all  involved 
in  interminable  struggles  for  preponderance  in  her  lands 
and  on  her  seas;  while  Russia,  in  the  course  of  a  few  Cen- 
turies, conquered  and  partly  colonized  the  best  parts  of 
the  immense  cold  prairies  and  forest  lands  on  the  north- 
western slope  of  the  high  plateau,  and  crossing  its  narrow 
extremity  in  the  northeast,  reached  the  Pacific.  Great 

445 


446  MODERN  EUROPE 

Britain  established  herself  in  India,  and  expelling  thence 
her  competitors  from  all  but  a  few  spots  on  the  sea-coast, 
she  took  possession  of  the  whole  of  the  peninsula,  and 
extended  her  powers  over  the  western  parts  of  the  Indo- 
Chinese  peninsula.  The  Portuguese  retain  in  India  only 
Din,  Daman,  and  Goa;  and  the  French  keep  Chander- 
nagore,  Yanaon,  Pondicherry,  Carical,  and  Mahe.  The 
next  colonial  power  in  Asia  is  the  Dutch,  who  have  under 
their  dominion  most  of  Borneo,  Sumatra,  Java,  Celebes, 
the  Moluccas,  and  the  small  Sunda  Islands.  British  and 
French  interests  are  rivals  in  the  Indo-Chinese  peninsula, 
and  while  Burmah  has  become  English,  the  annexation  by 
France  of  Tonquin  and  of  Siamese  territory  east  of  the 
Mekhong  has  consolidated  French  power  in  Indo-China. 
The  joint  intervention  by  Russia  and  France  in  Chinese 
affairs,  after  the  Japanese  war  of  1894-95,  has  further 
extended  both  French  and  Russian  influence  in  Asia. 
China,  till  then  regarded  as  forming  with  Britain  and 
Russia,  the  third  great  power  in  Asia,  has  assumed  tem- 
porarily at  least,  a  quite  subordinate  place;  while  Japan 
has  become  the  foremost  native  Asiatic  power. 

The  chief  political  divisions  of  Asia  with  their  approxi- 
mate areas  and  population  (mostly  estimated)  appear  as 
follows.  The  territories  belonging  to  European  powers 
or  protected  by  them,  are  distinguished  by  parenthesis: 

Area  in 

RUSSIAN  ASIA—  sq.  m.  Population. 

Caucasus  (Russian)   182,500  6,534-850 

Siberia  (Russian)    4,824,570  4,093,500 

Transcaspian  Region  (Russian) 230,400  206,000 

Caspian  Sea  169,670 

Turkestan  (Russian)   1,541,500  5,245,000 


6,948,640      16,079,350 


AWAKENING  OF  ASIA 


447 


WESTERN  ASIA— 

Asiatic  Turkey  

Samos  (trib.  to  Turkey) 

Cyprus  (British)   

Independent  Arabia   968,200 

Aden  and  Perim   (British)  — 70 


Area  in 

sq.  m.       Population. 
729,200      16,133,000 

210 
3o8o 


41,200 
209,200 
3,700,000 
34.900 


1,701,260  20,118,300 

IRAN  AND  TURAN— 

Persia  (Russian  and  British  protectorate)..  636,400  7,653,600 

Afghanistan  (British  and  Russian  influence)  240,000  4,000,000 

Kafiristan  (Russian  and  Brit,  protectorate)  20,000  1,000,000 

Beluchistan   (British  protectorate) ,.  106,800  350,000 

Khiva    (Russian  protectorate) 22,300  70,000 

Bokhara  and  Karategin  (Russian  prot.)...  92,300  2,130,000 

1,117,800  15,203,600 

INDIA— 

British  territory  787,000  213,567,200 

Feudatory  States  (British) 50973O  66,050,000 

Ceylon  (British)    25,360  3,008,000 

French  Possessions 195  282,700 

Portuguese  Possessions  1,605  475.2OO 

Himalaya  States    (British) 89,600  3.300,000 

1,413,490  286,683,100 

INDO-CHINESE  PENINSULA— 

Wild  tribes  of  Assam  (British  prot.) 25,290  200,000 

Lower  Burmah  (British) ) 

Upper  Burmah  (British) J 

Straits  Settlements  (British) 1,450  540,000 

Siam 280,650  6,000,000 

Malacca  States 31,500  300,000 

Cochin-China  (French)   j 

Tonquin  (French)   J.  225,620  24,100,000 

Cambodia  (French  protectorate) I 

Annam  (French  protectorate) J 


1,042,320      38,745,800 


448  MODERN  EUROPE 

Area  in 

CHINA  AND  JAPAN—                                        sq.  m.  Population. 

China  Proper  and  Manchuria 1,660,300  395,000,000 

Vassal  States  (Mongolia,  Tibet,  Zungaria, 

Eastern  Turkestan) 2,519,300  9,200,000 

Corea  (Japan  and  Russia  protectorate)  ....         84,250  10,500,000 

Hongkong  (British)   32  160,400 

Macao  (Portuguese)    28  68,100 

Japan  148,500  37,869,000 


4,412,410    452,797,500 


SOUTH-EASTERN  ASIA— 

Dutch  East  Indies 568,900  28,468,000 

Philippines  (United  States) 114,400  5,600,000 

Mariannes,  Sulu  and  Carolines  (Spain)...  1,860  181,000 

East  Timor,  etc.  (Portuguese) 6,290  300,000 

North  Borneo  and  Labuan  (British) 27,530  181,300 

Boreno  States  (Sarawak  and  Brunei) 62,940  450,000 


17,417,750    864,707,950 

It  will  be  seen  that  Asia  is  gradually  coming  under 
European  influence.  This  influence  has  reached  its  high- 
est development  in  the  British  dependency  of  India  of 
which  Queen  Victoria  is  Empress.  India  has  been  easy 
prey  for  many  conquerors.  The  influence  of  the  Greek 
conquest  (see  volume  "Ancient  History")  was  swept  away 
by  the  Scythians,  who  poured  in  many  waves  from  126 
B.  C.  and  544  A.  D.  over  Northern  India.  Their  inroads, 
as  well  as  the  existence  of  ancient  aboriginal  tribes  in 
India,  left  a  lasting  influence  on  the  character  of  the 
population,  and  profoundly  modified  the  religious  beliefs 
and  domestic  institutions  of  the  Hindus. 

So  early  as  A.  D.  664  Arabs  began  to  make  preda- 
tory expeditions  against  Guzerat  and  Sind.  The  conquest 
of  Persia,  toward  the  middle  of  the  Seventh  Century,  at 
length  brought  the  successors  of  Mohammed  to  the  Indus, 
and  in  the  Northwest  of  India  they  -nade  some  temporary 


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AWAKENING  OF  ASIA  449 

acquisitions  during-  the  ensuing  100  years.  How- 
ever 200  years  more  were  to  pass  before  the 
foundations  of  a  durable  Mohammedan  Empire  were  laid. 
It  was  in  the  year  999  that  Mahmud  declared  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  Kingdom  of  Ghazni  in  Afghanistan — a 
proceeding  which  he  followed  with  at  least  twelve  expedi- 
tions into  India,  one  of  which  carried  him  beyond  the 
Jumna,  and  another  ended  in  the  occupation  of  Guzerat. 
Later,  in  1024,  he  conquered  and  annexed  to  his  King- 
dom, the  provinces  of  Lahorea  and  Mooltan.  The  suc- 
ceeding dynasties  of  Afghan  Kings  held  power  in  India 
for  500  years;  but  the  advance  of  their  power  was  gradual, 
for  it  was  not  until  1206  that  Delhi  was  taken,  and  the 
greater  part  of  Hindustan  was  annexed  by  Kubt-ub-din, 
with  whose  memory  is  connected  the  Kubt-minar,  near 
Delhi;  and  the  first  Mohammedan  invasion  of  the  Dec- 
can  took  place  in  1294. 

From  this  time  onward  the  history  of  India  is  the  his- 
tory of  invasion,  dynasty  following  dynasty,  while  the 
Mongol  hordes  again  and  again  swept  into  the  country. 
At  length,  during  the  reign  of  the  last  monarch  of  the 
Toghlak  line,  the  famous  Tamerlane  burst  into  India  at 
the  head  of  a  mighty  host  and  captured  and  sacked  Delhi 
in  1398:  he  left  behind  him  Khizr  Khan,  who  thencefor- 
ward held  the  reins  of  power.  A  period  of  misrule, 
tyranny,  and  anarchy  ensued,  and  fittingly  paved  the  way 
for  the  total  conquest  of  the  country  by  the  Mogul  Emper- 
ors. Under  Shah  Jehan  (1628-58),  the  Mogul  Empire 
reached  its  zenith.  Many  public  works  and  grand  build- 
ings testify  to  his  magnificence  and  taste,  among  others 
the  Taj  Mahal  at  Agra,  which  is  said  to  have  been  the 
work  of  a  French  architect — Austin  of  Bordeaux.  The 
close  of  Shah  Jehan's  reign  was  embittered  by  the  rivalries 

of  his  four  sons.     Aurangzeb  (1658-1707)  defeated  his 
VOL.  2  —  29 


450  MODERN  EUROPE 

brothers  and  put  them  to  death;  his  father  he  kept  a  pris- 
oner for  the  rest  of  his  life.  Aurangzeb  had  great  ability 
and  courage,  and  was  a  master  of  dissimulation;  but  big- 
otry and  distrust  were  the  bane  of  his  policy,  and  the 
decline  of  the  Mogul  Empire  dates  from  his  reign.  Four 
sons  disputed  the  right  of  succession;  at  last  Bahadur 
Shah  gained  the  coveted  crown,  but  only  for  five  years. 
Dying  in  1712  he  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  Jehundar 
Shah,  who  was  cruelly  murdered  by  one  Farokshir,  a 
great-grandson  of  the  famous  Aurangzeb,  who  seized  on 
the  crown.  He  in  turn  was  himself  put  to  death  six  years 
later,  and  Muhammed  Shah,  grandson  of  Bahadur,  came 
to  the  throne.  The  viceroys  of  his  own  appointment  grew 
uneasy  and  rebellious,  and  all  unconsciously  aided  in  the 
growth  of  the  Mahratta  power.  One  of  them  refused  his 
aid  to  his  Sovereign,  and  the  Mahrattas  in  consequence 
subdued  the  Deccan.  In  1738,  to  avenge  an  alleged  insult, 
Nadir  Shah  of  Persia  invaded  India,  captured  Delhi,  and 
gave  the  city  over  to  the  mercy  of  his  terrible  followers, 
who  are  said  to  have  slain  more  than  100,000  of  the  inhab- 
itants, and  to  have  levied  as  contribution  and  carried  off 
as  plunder  treasure  equal  to  more  than  $250,000,000.  In 
spite  of  this  enormous  sacrifice,  peace  was  only  obtained 
by  giving  up  to  the  conqueror  all  the  country  west  of  the 
Indus.  On  the  death  of  Muhammad  (1748),  the  country 
was  fast  going  to  decay — it  was  in  fact  only  waiting  for 
a  fresh  conqueror.  The  Mahrattas  were  there  ready  for 
the  work  to  be  done.  About  1724,  the  Deccan,  Oudh,  and 
Bengal  became  practically  independent  under  Nizam-ul- 
Mulk  (ancestor  of  the  present  Nizam),  Sadat  Khan,  and 
Aliverdi  Khan  respectively. 

Simultaneously  with  the  decline  of  the  Moguls  rose  the 
power  of  the  Mahrattas.  They  were  Hindus,  and  the 
country  from  which  they  came  may  be  roughly  described 


AWAKENING  OF  ASIA  451 

by  drawing  two  lines  from  Nagpur  to  Surat  and  Goa  on 
the  west  coast.  The  founder  of  their  power  was  Sivaji 
( 1627-1680) ,  a  chieftain  of  the  family  of  Bhonslah.  The 
Mahratta  Empire,  containing  within  itself  the  seeds  of 
disintegration,  was  fated  to  bend  before  the  superior  sway 
of  European  adventurers,  who,  either  from  love  of  adven- 
ture or  thoughts  of  gain,  had  been  attracted  in  increasing 
numbers  to  the  shores  of  India. 

From  time  immemorial  the  trade  of  Europe  with 
India,  the  farther  East,  has  been  the  most  lucrative 
branch  of  the  world's  commerce,  and  has  enormously 
enriched  in  turn  each  Nation  that  has  carried  it  on.  In 
the  Fifteenth  Century  it  was  mainly  possessed  by  the 
Venetians  at  its  European  end,  and  by  the  Arabs,  the 
successors  of  the  old  Phoenicians,  in  its  Eastern  portion ; 
the  chief  centers  of  the  trade  of  the  Arabs  were  Calicut, 
Ormuz,  Aden,  and  Malacca.  Seing  the  large  profits 
to  be  derived  from,  this  trade,  the  rising  Nations  of 
Europe  in  the  Fifteenth  Century  sought  to  obtain  a 
share.  Hence  the  ardor  of  the  navigators  who  set  out 
to  discover  an  ocean  route  to  India.  The  sea  route 
round  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  was  discovered  by  Vasco 
da  Gama,  who  anchored  before  Calicut  on  the  2Oth  of 
May,  1498.  From  that  time  until  they  lost  their  naval 
supremacy  the  Portuguese  may  be  considered  to  have 
enjoyed  the  monopoly  of  Indian  trade.  The  first  Portu- 
guese Viceroy,  Francis  of  Almeida  (1505-1509),  estab- 
lished numerous  factories  and  fortresses,  and  took  pos- 
session of  Ceylon  and  the  Maldive  Islands;  while  his  suc- 
cessor Alfonso  de  Albuquerque,  captured  Goa  (1510), 
and  extended  the  Portuguese  dominion  in  various 
places,  but  notably  on  the  Malabar  and  Malacca  coasts. 
This  dominion  had  in  1542  practically  amounted  to  an 
entire  regulation  of  the  Asiatic  Coast  trade  with  Europe 


452  MODERN  EUROPE 

from  the  Persian  Gulf  to  Japan,  and  for  nearly  sixty 
years  afterward  the  King  of  Portugal  was  the  virtual 
Suzerain  of  the  southern  coast  of  Asia.  When  the  Por- 
tuguese crown  fell  into  weak  hands  its  power  in  the 
Eastern  seas  began  to  decline;  and  it  was  almost 
annulled  in  1580  when  the  crowns  of  Spain  and  Portugal 
were  united  under  Philip  II,  and  the  Asiatic  interests  of 
Portugal  were  subordinated  to  the  European  interests 
of  Spain.  The  Portuguese  were  content  to  bring  the 
exports  of  India  to  Lisbon;  they  left  it  to  the  Dutch  to 
carry  them  thence  to  the  other  ports  of  Europe.  When 
Phillip  II,  on  account  of  the  revolt  of  the  United 
Provinces,  shut  the  harbor  of  Lisbon  against  them,  the 
Dutch  (1580)  were  driven  either  to  forego  the  trade  or 
seek  it  in  the  East  themselves.  The  enterprise  of  the 
Nation  decided  the  question,  especially  as  the  Spanish 
naval  supremacy  had  been  shattered  by  the  defeat  of  the 
"Invincible  Armada"  in  1588.  In  1602  "The  Dutch 
East  India  Company"  was  formed  by  th.e  amalgamation 
of  the  previously  existing  trading  societies,  and  between 
1602  and  1620  the  principal  Portuguese  settlements  in 
the  East  were  captured.  In  1661  the  Portuguese  pos- 
sessed only  those  remnants  of  their  Indian  possessions 
which  they  still  hold.  The  Dutch  Eastern  Empire,  situ- 
ated mainly  in  the  Malayan  Peninsula,  and  contiguous 
islands  passed  with  the  Mother  Country  under  the 
dominion  of  France  in  1810.  Attacked  in  consequence 
and  conquered  by  the  English  in  1812,  it  was  surrend- 
ered again  to  the  Dutch  in  1816,  since  which  date  it  has 
remained  in  Dutch  hands. 

At  the  close  of  the  Sixteenth  Century  the  English 
also  began  to  feel  the  necessity  of  freeing  themselves 
from  dependence  on  others  for  the  supply  of  Indian 
produce,  and  to  desire  a  share  in  the  profits  of  Indian 


AWAKENING  OF  ASIA  453 

commerce.  After  the  success  of  some  smaller  ventures, 
the  English  East  India  Company  was  incorporated  by 
Queen  Elizabeth  by  royal  charter  on  the  3ist  of  Decem- 
ber, 1600.  Quarrels  with  the  Portuguese  ensued,  and 
no  footing  of  any  kind  was  obtained  until  the  year  1615, 
when  Captain  Best,  with  400  English  ships,  won  a  great 
victory  over  the  Portuguese  squadron  off  Surat,  where 
a  settlement  was  established,  and  a  satisfactory  treaty 
concluded  with  the  Emperor  Jehangir.  England  hav- 
ing entered  upon  the  war  of  the  Austrian  succession  in 
1744,  the  rival  companies  of  England  and  France  came 
in  collision  in  1746,  the  immediate  result  being  the  cap- 
ture of  Madras  in  that  year.  Had  Dupleix  received 
continuous  support  from  home,  he  might  have  suc- 
ceeded in  founding  a  French  Empire  in  India.  The 
first  reverses  of  the  English  were  retrieved  by  Give, 
whose  gallant  defense  of  Arcot  (1751)  was  followed  by 
a  series  of  brilliant  movements  culminating  in  the  utter 
defeat  of  the  French  army  at  Wandewash  in  1760,  and  in 
the  capture  of  Pondicherry  in  1761,  which  completed  the 
ruin  of  the  French.  The  territory  retained  by  the 
French  in  India  since  that  date  is  insignificant,  and  in 
these  possessions  they  are  forbidden  by  treaty  to  hold 
any  considerable  military  force.  The  tragedy  of  the 
Black  Hole  of  Calcutta  (1756)  summoned  Give  from 
Madras,  and  the  victory  of  Plassey  in  the  following  year 
made  British  influence  predominant  in  Bengal.  Give 
was  appointed  first  Governor  of  Bengal  in  1758.  In 
1763,  in  his  absence,  the  English  were  again  embroiled 
in  Bengal,  but  completely  defeated  their  opponents  at 
Buzar  (1764).  As  a  result  of  this  battle  they  received 
from  the  Emperor  at  Delhi  the  diwani  or  fiscal  adminis- 
tration of  Bengal,  Behar,  and  Orissa,  and  the  jurisdiction 
over  the  Northern  Circars.  Give  returned  a  second  time 


454  MODERN  EUROPE 

to  Bengal  as  Governor,  and  before  he  left  finally  in  1767, 
he  succeeded  in  reforming  the  services,  in  which  great 
abuses  existed.  After  an  interval  of  misrule  Warren 
Hastings  (1772-85)  was  appointed  President  of  Calcutta, 
and  then  Governor-General  in  1774,  on  the  creation  of 
that  office  under  the  Regulating  Act  of  1773.  He  not 
only  greatly  increased  the  power  and  territory  of  the 
Company  notwithstanding  the  opposition  of  a  hostile 
Council,  of  which  Sir  Philip  Francis,  the  reputed  author 
of  Junius,  was  a  member,  but  was  also  the  first  great 
administrative  organizer  of  the  British  possessions  in 
India.  He  repelled  Hyder  Ali's  memorable  invasion  of 
the  Carnatic  (1780)  and  defeated  the  triple  alliance  of 
the  Nizam,  the  Mahrattas,  and  Hyder  Ali.  In  doing  so 
he  probably  saved  British  India. 

In  1790  Lord  Cornwallis,  being  British  Governor- 
General,  and  Commander-in-Chief,  was  obliged  to  make 
war  on  Tippoo,  Sultan  of  Mysore,  who  had  invaded 
Travancore,  then  under  British  protection.  Half  the 
dominions  of  Tippoo  passed  to  the  East  India  Company 
by  a  treaty  dictated  to  the  defeated  Sultan  at  Seringa- 
patam.  In  1798  Lord  Mornington  (afterward  Marquis 
Wellesley)  became  Governor.  Tippoo  intrigued  now 
both  with  the  French  and  with  native  Princes  with  Eng- 
land, and  in  1799  Seringapatam  was  captured,  and 
Tippoo  slain.  In  the  famous  battle  of  Assaye,*  Colonel 
Wellesley  (afterward  the  Duke  of  Wellington)  defeated 
the  Mahrattas  under  Scindia,  while  the  victories  of  Gen- 
eral Lake  in  Northern  India  extended  the  dominion  of 
the  Company.  When  the  Earl  of  Moira  (afterward  the 
Marquis  of  Hastings)  became  Governor-General  (1813) 
the  Pindaris  and  Ghourkas  were  suppressed,  and  British 
rule  became  supreme  in  India.  Earl  Amherst's  admin- 

*See  Life  of  Wellington  in  "  Great  Warriors." 


AWAKENING  OF  ASIA  455 

istration  (1823-28)  was  marked  by  a  Burmese  war,  and 
that  of  Lord  William  Bentinck  (1828-35)  by  the  sup- 
pression of  the  custom  of  Sutti  (widow-burning)  and  of 
the  Thugs.  In  1836  the  Earl  of  Auckland  became  Gov- 
ernor-General. In  1842  the  terrible  massacre  of  British 
troops  at  Khyber  Pass  took  place,  for  which  retribution 
was  exacted  when  Kabul  was  sacked,  during  the  admin- 
istration of  Lord  Ellenborough.  Sir  Charles  Napier 
conquered  and  annexed  Scindia  under  the  last  named 
Governor.  In  1844  Sir  Henry  Hardinge  was  sent  out, 
and  then  followed  the  first  Sikh  war,  when  the  desperate 
battles  of  Moodkee,  Ferozeshah,  Aliwal,  and  Sobraon 
resulted  in  the  subjugation  of  the  Sikhs.  In  1848  Earl 
Dalhousie  commenced  an  administration  marked  by 
great  improvements  in  government  and  vast  social  prog- 
ress. A  second  Sikh  war  terminating  in  the  victory 
won  at  Guzerat  by  Sir  Hugh  Gough  (1849),  tnen 
occurred,  while  the  four  Kingdoms  of  Pegu,  Nagpur, 
Oude,  and  Punjab  were  annexed.  Viscount  Canning 
was  Governor-General  when  the  great  storm  of  1857 
broke  forth.  The  Indian  Mutiny  had  its  commence- 
ment in  a  massacre  at  Meerut,  and  it  quickly  spread  to 
Delhi,  where  there  were  no  European  troops.  At 
Cawnpore,  which  fell  into  the  hands  of  Nana  Sahib, 
Maharajah  of  Bithur,  a  terrible  massacre  of  Europeans, 
both  men  and  women,  took  place,  and  a  similar  fate 
seemed  to  await  those  who  were  besieged  in  the  Resi- 
dency at  Lucknow.  After  a  heroic  defense  of  eighty- 
seven  days,  the  city  was  relieved  by  Havelock  and  Out- 
ram.  In  1859  Oude  was  entirely  reduced.  During  the 
Mutiny  much  assistance  was  gained  from  native  chiefs, 
such  as  Scindia,  Holkar,  and  the  Nizam,  who  were 
rewarded  with  honors,  but  the  last  of  the  great 
Moguls,  the  King  of  Delhi,  was  transported  as  a 


456  MODERN  EUROPE 

felon,  and  died  in  1862  in  Pegu.  The  result  of 
the  Mutiny  was  the  transfer  of  the  Government  of 
India  from,  the  Company  to  the  crown.  Since  that 
event  the  most  memorable  incidents  in  the  history  of 
India  have  been  the  assassination  of  Lord  Mayo,  Gov- 
ernor-General, in  the  Andaman  Islands  in  1872, .and  the 
second  Afghan  war  in  1878.  In  1882  a  detachment  of 
Indian  troops  did  excellent  service  for  England  in  Egypt, 
and  in  November,  1885,  Upper  Burmah  was  annexed  to 
the  British  Empire. 

Lord  Lansdowne's  administration  was  responsible 
for  a  change  in  the  currency  law  by  which  the  Mints 
were  closed  to  free  coinage  of  silver,  and  the  rupee  cur- 
rency cut  away  from  its  silver  basis  to  be  eventually,  it 
was  intended,  attached  to  a  gold  standard.  The  recon- 
struction of  the  Legislative  Councils  introduced  a  more 
popular  element  in  the  government  of  India,  while  the 
opening  of  the  public  service  more  widely  to  the  natives 
of  India  gave  them  a  larger  share  in  the  work  of  admin- 
istration. With  the  years  1894  began  the  Viceroyalty 
of  the  Earl  of  Elgin  and  Kincardine,  which  was  full  of 
events,  particularly  in  1897;  frontier  wars,  famine,  earth- 
quakes, plague,  seditious  agitations,  boundary  settle- 
ments, financial  embarrassments,  and  peaceful  reforms. 
In  1895  a  rising  in  Chitral  and  the  danger  to  a  beleag- 
ured  British  garrison  made  necessary  a  formidable  mili- 
tary expedition  which  was  conducted  with  rapidity, 
precision,  gallantry,  and  success.  In  1897  Lord  Elgin 
had  to  face,  in  addition  to  troubles  on  the  frontier,  the 
internal  calamities  of  famine,  earthquake,  and  plague. 
The  rains  of  1896  failed  after  the  middle  of  August  over 
a  large  area  in  India.  Grain  riots  occurred  at  the  end 
of  September,  and  before  the  end  of  October,  1896,  50,- 
ooo  persons  were  receiving  State  relief,  the  numbers 


AWAKENING  OF  ASIA  457 

rapidly  increasing  until  they  reached  nearly  three  and 
a  quarter  millions  in  the  beginning  of  March,  1897. 
In  September,  1896,  came  the  first  reports  of  the  bubonic 
plague  in  Bombay.  The  total  number  of  deaths  re- 
ported up  to  October,  1897,  was  11,000  in  Bombay,  and 
about  36,000  in  the  rest  of  the  Presidency.  About  70 
per  cent  of  the  cases  reported  resulted  fatally.  Lord 
Curzon,  whose  wife  is  an  American  woman,  became 
Viceroy  in  1899. 

Contiguous  to  British  India  and  Russian  Asia  are  the 
States  of  Afghanistan  and  Persia,  whose  Sovereigns  have 
been  a  constant  source  of  contention  between  Russia  and 
England  both  in  war  and  diplomacy.  By  agreement 
with  the  Amir,  Afghanistan  has  no  relation  with  other 
powers  except  the  Government  of  India.  In  all  other 
respects  Afghanistan  is  independent,  and  the  rule  of  the 
Amir  despotic.  In  the  Eleventh  and  Thirteenth  Cen- 
turies the  Afghan  Empires  of  the  Sultans  Ghazni  and 
Ghor,  and  in  the  last  Century  that  of  Ahmed  Shah, 
extended  over  the  Punjab.  In  1838  the  country  was 
occupied  by  British  troops,  but  three  years  later  a 
national  revolt  broke  out  at  Kabul,  which  resulted  in 
the  destruction  of  an  English  army  and  the  abandon- 
ment of  the  country  to  its  native  rulers.  A  second  inva- 
sion by  the  English  in  1879  led  to  the  temporary  occu- 
pation of  Kabul  and  Kandahar,  and  to  the  annexation 
to  the  Indian  Empire  of  the  chief  passes  between 
Afghanistan  and  India, 

Something  of  an  ancient  and  mediaeval  history  of 
Persia  has  been  told  in  the  first  volume  of  this  work. 
The  Sassanian  Kings  raised  Persia  to  a  height  of  power 
and  prosperity  such  as  it  never  before  attained,  and  more 
than  once  imperiled  the  existence  of  the  eastern  Empire. 
The  most  notable  Kings  of  the  dynasty  were  Shahpur  I, 


458  MODERN  EUROPE 

or  Sapor  (240-273),  who  routed  the  Romans,  and  took 
the  Emperor  Valerian  captive  at  Edessa;  his  grandson, 
Shahpur  II,  who  also  maintained  an  equal  conflict  with 
the  Romans,  and  Chosroes  I  and  II,  the  latter  of  whom 
was  ultimately  crushed  by  Heraclius  in  628.  The  last 
Sassanian  King,  Yazdigerd  (Yazdajird),  was  driven 
from  the  throne,  after  a  great  battle  at  Nahavend  (639), 
by  the  Arabs,  who  now  began  to  extend  their  dominion 
in  all  directions,  and  from  this  period  may  be  dated  the 
gradual  change  of  character  in  the  native  Persian  race, 
for  they  have  been  from  this  time  constantly  subject  to 
alien  races.  During  the  reigns  of  Omar  (the  first  of 
the  Arab  rulers  of  Persia)  Othman  AH,  and  the 
Ommiades  (634-750)  Bagdad  became  the  capital,  and 
Khorassan  the  favorite  province  of  the  early  and  more 
energetic  rulers  of  this  race,  and  Persia  consequently 
came  to  be  considered  as  the  center  and  nucleus  of  the 
calif  ate.  But  the  rule  of  the  Califs  soon  became  merely 
nominal,  and  ambitious  Governors,  or  other  aspiring 
individuals,  established  independent  principalities,  in 
various  parts  of  the  country.  Many  of  these  dynasties 
were  transitory,  others  lasted  for  Centuries,  and  created 
extensive  and  powerful  Empires.  The  Moguls  under 
Genghis  Khan  swept  them  away.  Afterward  they  fell 
prey  to  the  Turks  in  the  Fifteenth  Century.  The  Turks 
were  expelled  in  1605  by  Shah  Abbas  the  Great. 
Afghanistan  and  Beluchistan  finally  separated  from  Per- 
sia, and  the  country  was  split  up  into  a  number  of  small 
independent  States  till  1755,  when  Kerim  Khan,  the 
Kurd,  reestablished  peace  and  unity  in  Western  Persia, 
and  by  his  wisdom,  justice,  and  warlike  talents  acquired 
the  esteem  of  his  subjects  and  the  respect  of  neighboring 
States. 

The  history  of  Persia  from  1789  to  1830  is  mainly  a 


AWAKENING  OF  ASIA  459 

struggle  against  Russia.  Aga  Mahommed,  who  founded 
the  present  royal  dynasty,  became  King  in  1795,  and 
subdued  Khorassan  and  Georgia,  but  his  successor, 
Futteh  Ali,  was  drawn  into  war  with  Russia  and  com- 
pelled to  cede  Georgia  to  that  power.  Another  war  was 
followed  by  the  treaty  of  Gulistan  (1813),  which  gave 
away  further  territory  and  allowed  the  Russians  to  navi- 
gate the  Caspian.  In  1826-29  a  third  war  cost  Persia 
Armenia.  In  1834  Mahommed  Shah  obtained  the 
throne,  and  tried  to  assert  the  old  Persian  supremacy 
over  the  Afghans  and  the  Beloochees.  He  accordingly 
proceeded  to  annex  Herat,  but  was  prevented  by  Eng- 
land. In  1848  Nazir-ed-Din  (assassinated  in  1898)  pur- 
sued a  similar  course,  and  finally,  in  1856,  the  Persians 
took  the  city.  A  British  army  was  forthwith  sent 
against  them,  under  Outram  and  Havelock,  who  gained 
repeated  victories  and  compelled  the  restoration  of 
Herat.  Since  then  Persian  aggression  has  left  Herat 
alone,  and  developed  itself  in  other  places,  causing  fre- 
quent disputes  with  the  Amir  of  Afghanistan  and  the 
Khan  of  Khelat,  from  the  latter  of  whom  a  large  slice  of 
territory  was  obtained  in  1872.  The  Caspian  Sea,  which 
bounds  Persia  on  the  north,  is  wholly  under  Russian  in- 
fluence, the  Persian  Gulf  on  the  south  is  dominated  and 
policed  by  the  British  Government.  The  northern  fron- 
tiers of  Persia  are  in  contact  with  the  Russian  provinces, 
its  eastern  with  Afghanistan  and  Beluchistan,  which  are 
within  the  sphere  of  British  influence,  and  its  western 
with  Turkey.  Railways  are  practically  non-existent, 
and  the  Shah  has  bound  himself  not  to  allow  the  con- 
struction of  railways  in  Persia  before  the  end  of  the 
Century. 

The   Kingdom   of   Siam   lies   between   the   British 
Indian  province  of  Burmah  and  its  dependencies  on  one 


460  MODERN  EUROPE 

side,  and  the  territory  of  French  Indo-China  on  the 
other.  By  the  Anglo-French  agreement  of  May,  1896, 
the  main  central  part  of  Siam,  including  the  basins  of  the 
rivers  Menam,  Petcha  Bouri,  and  Petriou,  was  neutral- 
ized, the  two  Governments  agreeing  not  to  send  troops 
into  it,  or  to  obtain  an  exclusive  advantage  in  it. 

The  French  Indo-China  consists  of  Cochin-China, 
Tonquin,  Annam,  and  Cambodia.  Since  the  union  cre- 
ated in  1887  they  have  been  under  a  single  Governor- 
General,  with  a  Lieutenant-Governor  for  Cochin-China, 
and  Residents-General  for  the  other  three  divisions. 
The  first  cession  of  Cochin-China  was  in  1862;  its  west- 
ern provinces  were  occupied  in  1867.  Cambodia  recog- 
nized the  French  protectorate  in  1863;  its  present  status 
is,  however,  regulated  by  a  convention  of  June  17,  1884; 
the  effective  protectorate  over  Annam  dates  from  1874, 
but  present  relations  are  determined  by  a  convention  of 
June  6,  1884.  Tonquin  may  be  said  to  have  been  finally 
conquered  when  peace  had  been  concluded  with  China 
in  1885.  The  Lao  country  up  to  the  Mekong  was 
added  to  the  French  protectorate  as  a  result  of  a  dispute 
with  Siam  in  1893,  and  the  Mekong  was  finally  fixed  as 
a  boundary  between  French  and  British  dominions  in 
1896.  Cochin-China  is  wholly  annexed  and  directly 
administered  by  French  officials.  Annam  is  governed 
by  a  King,  with  his  court  at  Hue.  Subject  to  the  con- 
trol of  the  French  Resident,  the  Annamese  Kingdom 
is  an  absolute  despotism,  after  the  Chinese  type,  and  the 
administration  is  in  the  hands  of  the  King's  officials.  In 
Cambodia  the  French  Resident  presides  over  the  State 
Council,  and  French  interference  in  internal  administra- 
tion is  greater  than  it  is  in  Annam;  but  Government  is 
carried  on  in  the  name  of  the  King  of  Cambodia.  In 
Tonquin  there  is  a  native  Regent,  who  is  head  of  the 


AWAKENING  OF  ASIA  461 

native  administration.  But  he  does  not  rule.  The  direc- 
tion of  affairs  is  in  the  hands  of  the  French  Resident 
and  his  subordinate  officials. 

The  most  important  English  Asiatic  possession  out- 
side of  India  is  the  Island  of  Ceylon.  In  1507  the 
Portuguese  landed  in  Ceylon  and  formed  settlements 
along  the  coast;  but  about  150  years  later  they  were 
deposed  by  the  Dutch.  In  1796  the  British  took  posses- 
sion of  the  Dutch  settlements  on  the  island,  and  annexed 
them  to  the  Presidency  of  Madras;  but  six  years  after,  in 
1 80 1,  Ceylon  was  erected  into  a  separate  crown  colony. 
In  1815  the  King  of  Kandy  was  deposed  and  banished, 
and  his  dominions,  which  had  up  to  that  time  maintained 
their  independence  of  European  rule,  were  annexed  to 
the  British  crown. 

In  1602  the  Dutch  created  their  East  India  Com- 
pany. This  Company  conquered  successively  the  Dutch 
East  Indies,  and  ruled  them  during  nearly  two  Cen- 
turies. After  the  dissolution  of  the  Company  in  1798 
the  Dutch  possessions  were  governed  by  the  mother- 
country.  Java,  the  most  important  of  the  colonial  pos- 
sessions of  the  Netherlands,  was  formerly  administered, 
politically  and  socially,  on  a  system  established  by  Gen- 
eral Johannes  Graaf  Van  den  Bosch  in  1832,  and  known 
as  the  "culture  system."  It  was  based  in  principle  on 
the  officially  superintended  labor  of  the  natives,  directed 
so  as  to  produce  not  only  a  sufficiency  of  food  for  them- 
selves, but  a  large  quantity  of  colonial  produce  best 
suited  for  the  European  market.  The  "culture  system" 
comprised  the  forced  labor  of  the  natives  employed  in 
the  cultivation  of  coffee,  sugar,  indigo,  pepper,  tea, 
tobacco,  and  other  articles.  At  present,  the  labor  of  the 
natives  is  only  required  for  the  produce  of  coffee,  which 
is  sold  by  the  Government  partly  in  the  colonies,  but 


462  MODERN  EUROPE 

mostly  in  the  Netherlands.  By  the  terms  of  a  bill  which 
passed  the  Legislature  of  the  Netherlands  in  1870,  the 
forced  cultivation  of  the  sugar-cane  is  now  totally 
abolished. 

The  most  important  native  power  of  the  East  and, 
in  fact,  the  only  one  that  is  independent  of  Europe,  is 
Japan,  whose  wonderful  progress  in  the  arts  of  peace  and 
war  during  the  last  generation  has  amazed  all  the  world. 
At  international  expositions  Japan  has  shown  the  skill 
of  her  workmen,  while  during  the  war  with  China  she 
proved  that  in  future  she  was  to  be  reckoned  with  in  the 
division  of  Asia.  Though  the  newest  of  the  powers, 
Japan  is  one  of  the  oldest  in  history.  The  Japanese 
claim  a  written  history  extending  over  2,500  years,  and 
its  Sovereigns  claim  to  have  formed  an  unbroken 
dynasty  since  660  B.  C,  the  present  Emperor  being  the 
121  st  of  his  race.  But  the  early  history  of  the  Nation  is 
of  slight  importance  in  a  history  of  the  world.  The 
Generalissimo,  or  Shogun,  seized  the  supreme  authority 
in  1192,  although  the  Mikado  continued,  as  always,  the 
nominal  ruler.  The  next  four  Centuries,  until  1603, 
were  a  period  of  bloodshed  during  which  the  feudal 
system  became  well  established. 

Japan  became  first  known  to  Europe  under  the  name 
of  Zipangu,  through  Marco  Polo.  The  Portuguese,  in 
1542,  established  a  lucrative  trade,  which  continued 
until  their  final  expulsion  in  1640.  From  this  date  the 
Japanese  government  maintained  the  most  rigid  policy 
of  isolation.  No  foreign  vessels  might  touch  at  Japan- 
ese ports  under  any  pretense.  Japanese  sailors  wrecked 
on  any  foreign  shore  were  with  difficulty  permitted  to 
return  home;  while  the  Dutch,  locked  up  in  their  factory 
at  Deshima,  were  allowed  to  hold  no  communication 
with  the  mainland;  and  the  people  lived  like  "frogs  in  a 


AWAKENING  OF  ASIA  463 

well,"  as  the  Japanese  proverb  has  it,  till  1853,  when  they 
were  rudely  awakened  from  their  dream  of  peace  and 
security  by  Commodore  Perry's  steaming  into  the  har- 
bor of  Uraga  with  a  squadron  of  United  States  war 
vessels.  He  extorted  a  treaty  from  the  frightened 
Shogun,  3  ist  March,  1854,  and  Japan,  after  a  with- 
drawal of  216  years,  entered  once  more  the  family  of 
Nations.  Other  countries  slowly  followed  the  example 
of  the  United  States,  until  sixteen  in  all  had  obtained  the 
same  privileges.  By  signing  the  treaty,  however,  the 
Shogun  gave  offense  to  the  daimyos,  or  the  territorial 
Princes,  and  a  long  period  of  confusion  ensued.  In 
1868  he  was  completely  overthrown,  and  the  Mikado  left 
his  enforced  seclusion.  The  diamyos,  very  few  of  whom 
were  more  than  mere  weaklings  under  the  direction  of 
strong-willed  retainers,  resigned  their  fiefs,  and  were 
pensioned  by  the  Government.  Since  1868  the  leading 
men  of  Satsuma  and  Chosho,  forming  what  is  called  the 
Sat-cho  combination,  have  held  the  important  portfolios 
of  State.  The  new  period,  commencing  with  the 
Emperor  Mutsuhito's  accession,  has  been  named  Meiji, 
"enlightened  peace." 

Japan,  during  the  Meiji  period,  has  striven  to  make 
her  influence  felt  as  a  powerful  factor  in  Asiatic  politics. 
Her  expedition  to  Formosa  in  1874  to  punish  piracy, 
her  annexation  in  1879  of  the  Loo  Choo  Islands,  not- 
withstanding China's  remonstrances  and  threats,  her 
spirited  policy  in  Corea  in  1873,  1882,  1894,  and  1895, 
her  conscription  law  of  1883,  and  subsequent  army  reor- 
ganization, her  development  of  a  strong  navy,  her  coast- 
defense  scheme  of  1887,  subscribed  to-  liberally  by 
wealthy  private  individuals,  proved  her  assertive  spirit 
A  rebellion  in  1877  of  the  fiercer  Satsuma  men  under 
General  Saigo  was  promptly  crushed. 


464  MODERN  EUROPE 

During  the  last  few  years,  especially  since  the  recon- 
struction of  the  cabinet  and  the  administration  in  1886, 
the  court  has  emerged  entirely  from  its  seclusion.  The 
Emperor  and  Empress  have  visited  all  the  chief  institu- 
tions, and  are  present  at  public  spectacles.  The  crown 
Prince,  Haru,  was  the  first  in  the  long  dynasty  to  be  edu- 
cated at  a  public  school.  A  new  nobility  was  created  in 
1884,  drawn  partly  from  the  old  feudal  baronage  and 
partly  from  the  new  one  of  1868.  By  the  constitution 
of  1889,  February  nth,  voluntarily  granted  by  the 
Mikado,  the  succession  to  the  throne  was  definitely 
fixed  in  the  main  line.  The  Emperor  appoints  his 
cabinet,  whose  members  are  responsible  to  him;  there 
is  also  a  Privy  Council  whom  the  Emperor  may  consult. 
The  Emperor  declares  war,  makes  peace,  and  concludes 
treaties.  The  Imperial  Diet,  formed  on  the  German  sys- 
tem, consists  of  two  houses,  one  of  nobles,  and  one  of 
representatives.  The  house  of  nobles  contains  about 
three  hundred  members,  and  the  house  of  representa- 
tives the  same,  or  about  one  member  to  128,000  popula- 
tion. Voting  is  by  scrutin  de  liste  and  secret  ballot. 
The  Diet  must  assemble  every  year.  Japan  enjoys  also 
an  admirable  system  of  local  home  rule,  provinces,  dis- 
tricts, cities,  and  villages  having  their  local  Governors, 
and  councils.  As  has  been  shown,  the  progress  which 
has  been  made  by  the  Japanese  is  remarkable.  Young 
men  of  exceptional  promise  have  been  sent  to  the  great 
universities  of  Europe  and  America,  to  return,  upon  the 
completion  of  their  education,  and  mingle  with  the  peo- 
ple as  a  leavening  factor  of  the  most  potent  quality. 
The  hasty  assimilation  of  Western  ideas  due  to  Japan's 
previous  entire  isolation  from  the  rest  of  the  world 
occasioned  many  small  extravagances  and  imprudences, 
still  the  patriotic  spirit  of  the  Nation  has  triumphed  in 


AWAKENING  OF  ASIA  465 

spite  of  these,  and. her  administration  is  now  (1899)  in 
a  highly  satisfactory  condition.  By  the  new  constitu- 
tion, absolute  freedom  of  religious  belief  and  practice  is 
secured,  so  long  as  it  is  not  prejudicial  to  peace  and 
order.  Education  is  general  and  compulsory.  There 
is  a  complete  system  of  local  elementary,  middle,  and 
normal  schools,  and  a  central  university  in  the  Capital, 
with  five  higher  middle  schools  as  feeders.  There  is  also 
a  higher  normal  school  at  Tokio.  Education  is  per- 
fectly free  from  class  restriction.  The  printing  press  is 
active.  Newspapers  are  comparatively  dearer  than  in 
the  United  States.  The  Japanese  police  is  a  most 
efficient  force.  The  convict  system  is  an  excellent  one, 
and  the  establishments  are  so  conducted  as  to  be  a 
source  of  revenue  to  the  Government.  Penal  and  civil 
codes  have  been  drafted  on  a  European  basis.  Taxation 
mostly  falls  upon  the  land  and  upon  the  wine,  which  is 
called  sake.  The  one  thing  needed  to  prove  Japan's 
power  was  a  war,  and  the  opportunity  came  in  1894. 

Open  hostilities  between  Japan  and  China  com- 
menced in  July,  1894,  at  Corea,  before  war  between  the 
two  countries  had  been  declared,  and  were  continued 
until  the  signing  of  the  treaty  of  peace  in  April  17,  1895. 
Corea  for  many  years  had  acknowledged  the  suzerainty 
of  China.  Japan,  for  commercial  reasons,  desired 
Corean  independence.  The  war  arose  because  of  the 
desire  of  Japan  for  supremacy  in  Corea.  During  an 
insurrection  in  Corea,  China  and  Japan  each  sent  troops 
to  the  seat  of  trouble.  This  precipitated  matters  and  a 
declaration  of  war  soon  followed.  The  Japanese  were 
uniformly  successful,  both  on  land  and  at  sea.  Their 
armies  were  finely  trained,  and  their  ships  and  soldiers 
were  armed  with  the  latest  improved  guns.  The 
Chinese  knew  practically  nothing  about  modern  warfare. 

VOI,.  2  —  JO 


466  MODERN  EUROPE 

Many  American  and  European  naval  officers  were  in 
command  of  the  war  vessels  of  the  Japanese.  The  prin- 
cipal engagements  were  at  Ping-Yang,  and  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Yalu  River,  where  the  Chinese  fleet  was  almost 
totally  destroyed.  Japan  soon  had  possession  of  all  of 
Corea,  and  later  captured  Moukden  and  Port  Arthur. 
From  the  most  authentic  reports  obtainable,  the  Japan- 
ese fighting  force  taking  part  in  the  campaign  numbered 
a  little  over  600,000.  This  does  not  include  large 
reserves  at  various  points.  The  same  report  gives  the 
Japanese  loss  as  4,113,  of  which  734  were  killed  in 
battle,  231  died  of  wounds,  and  3,138  died  of  disease. 
The  Chinese  losses  cannot  be  accurately  ascertained,  but 
they  are  variously  estimated  at  from  eight  to  twelve 
times  that  of  the  Japanese. 

The  unquestioned  superiority  of  the  Japanese  in  war 
caused  the  Chinese  to  sue  for  peace,  and  by  a  treaty 
made  April  17,  1895,  Formosa  and  the  adjacent  Pesca- 
dores Islands  were  ceded  to  Japan.  The  treaty  also 
provided  for  the  temporary  occupation  of  Port  Arthur 
and  Wei-Hai-Wei  on  the  Chinese  Coast,  and  for  the 
independence  of  Corea,  which  was  to  be  virtually  under 
Japanese  protection. 

Alarmed  at  the  success  of  the  Japanese,  and  fearing 
to  have  so  powerful  a  neighbor  in  control  of  the  Yellow 
Sea  near  the  Siberian  ports,  Russia  interfered  and 
brought  the  powers  to  insist  upon  the  evacuation  of  the 
ports  by  the  Japanese.  By  treaty  of  March  23,  1898, 
Port  Arthur  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  Russians, 
while  Wei-Hai-Wei  was  occupied  by  the  British  May 
20,  1898.  Meanwhile  Germany,  to  secure  its  share  of 
the  spoil,  obtained  a  lease  of  Kia-Chou  Bay  on  the 
Shang-Tung  peninsula  from  China,  December  3,  1897. 
These  arrangements  have  aroused  great  animosity  in 


AWAKENING  OF  ASIA  467 

Japan,  where  the  people  are  indignant  that  they  have 
been  defrauded  of  the  fruits  of  their  victory.  There  have 
been  constant  cabinet  changes,  which  seem  full  of  peril 
for  the  political  future  of  the  islands,  and  insurrections 
have  continued  in  Formosa  while  Japan  has  been  forced 
to  allow  Russia  to  share  in  the  protectorate  of  Corea. 

The  aim  of  Japanese  statesmanship  to-day  is  to  pre- 
vent the  partition  of  China.  In  1898  Marshal  Yamagata 
visited  Pekin  and  tried  to  secure  the  cooperation  of  the 
Chinese  Government,  but  met  with  no  success.  The 
European  powers  in  the  meantime  are  slowly  absorbing 
Chinese  territory — Manchuria  is  under  Russian  influ- 
ence, while  each  of  the  powers  have  more  or  less  well 
defined  "spheres  of  influence."  The  Chinese  Govern- 
ment has  lost  whatever  independence  it  had  in  the  past, 
while  the  close  of  the  Nineteenth  Century  sees  its  total 
dismemberment  near.  It  is  an  enormous  territory — 
the  most  populous,  and,  excluding  Siberia,  the  largest 
Empire  in  Asia.  China  proper  is  remarkable  as  the 
most  compact  nationality  in  the  world,  having  an  area 
of  1,336,841  square  miles,  with  a  population  of  386,- 
000,000.  The  rest  of  the  Empire  includes  Manchuria, 
Mongolia,  Thibet,  Zungaria,  and  East  Turkestan,  which 
cover  an  area  of  about  2,881,560  square  miles,  and  con- 
tain about  18,000,000  souls.  China  has  strong  claims  to 
rank  high  in  the  family  of  Nations  in  the  extent  of  her 
territory,  the  multitude  of  her  people,  their  industry,  and 
the  antiquity  of  her  history.  The  Government  of  the 
country  is  in  theory  most  carefully  organized,  although 
in  practice  it  is  to  be  feared  it  is  far  otherwise.  At  its 
head  is  the  Emperor,  Supreme  Priest  and  King,  whose 
name  is  Kuang  Hsu.  The  Nei-ko,  or  Cabinet,  which 
includes  two  Manchu  members,  two  Chinese,  and  two 
assistants  from  the  Han-lin,  or  Great  College,  adminis- 


468  MODERN  EUROPE 

ters  the  Empire  under  the  supreme  direction  of  the  Privy 
Council.  Seven  boards,  or  councils,  each  presided  over 
by  a  Manchu  and  a  Chinese,  are  entrusted  in  subordina- 
tion to  the  Nei-ko,  with  all  civil  appointments,  with  all 
financial  matters,  with  the  direction  of  rites  and  cere- 
monies, with  military  affairs,  with  public  works,  with 
criminal  jurisdiction,  and  with  the  conduct  of  naval 
affairs.  The  board  of  Censors  is  theoretically  superior 
to  the  central  administration,  and  in  practice  possesses 
considerable  power,  through  its  right  of  access  to  the 
Sovereign.  But  the  real  rule  is  in  the  hands  of  the 
Dowager  Empress  and  Li  Hung  Chang.  The  eighteen 
provinces  are  divided  among  a  certain  number  of  Gov- 
ernor-Generals, who  are  assisted  by  Governors  of  dis- 
tricts, and  by  the  "taotais"  of  the  cities.  Agricultural 
pursuits  occupy  the  majority  of  the  people,  the  chief 
products  being  tea,  silk,  cereals,  and  sugar.  There  is 
also  much  coal  in  all  the  provinces.  The  greater  part  of 
the  country  is  only  very  partially  developed,  and  much 
benefit  would  accrue  to  native  and  foreign  trade  if  a 
proper  system  of  railways  could  be  established.  Very 
little  has  been  done  in  this  direction  at  present,  although 
Russia  is  making  beginnings  which  are  jealously 
watched  by  the  powers.  Various  ports,  called  the  treaty 
ports,  which  number  twenty-four  in  all,  have  been 
thrown  open  to  European  trade,  and  about  10,000  Eu- 
ropeans reside  in  these  ports,  of  whom  about  4,000  are 
British  subjects.  Shanghai  is  the  great  foreign  center, 
more  than  half  of  the  Europeans  residing  here. 

The  ancient  history  of  China  has  been  dealt  with  in 
the  first  volume  of  this  work.  From  that  period  until 
the  opening  of  European  intercourse  there  is  nothing  of 
interest  and,  in  fact,  China  has  made  no  real  progress 
from  that  day  to  this.  It  was  not  till  after  the  Cape  of 


AWAKENING  OF  ASIA  469 

Good  Hope  was  doubled,  and  the  passage  to  India  dis- 
covered by  Vasco  da  Gama  in  1497,  that  intercourse 
between  any  of  the  European  nations  and  China  was 
possible  by  sea.  It  was  in  1516  that  the  Portuguese 
first  made  their  appearance  at  Canton;  and  they  were 
followed  at  intervals  by  the  Spaniard,  the  Dutch,  and  the 
English  in  1635.  The  Chinese  received  none  of  them 
cordially;  and  their  dislike  of  them  was  increased  by  their 
international  jealousies  and  collisions  with  one  another. 
The  Manchu  Sovereignty  of  the  Empire,  moreover,  was 
then  in  the  throes  of  its  birth,  and  its  rulers  were  the 
more  disposed  to  assert  their  own  superiority  to  all  other 
potentates.  They  would  not  acknowledge  them  as  their 
equals,  but  only  as  their  vassals.  They  felt  the  power 
of  the  foreigners  whenever  they  made  an  attempt  to 
restrict  their  operations  by  force,  and  began  to  fear  them. 
As  they  became  aware  of  their  conquests  in  the  Philip- 
pines, Java,  and  India,  they  would  gladly  have  prohibited 
their  approach  to  their  territories  altogether.  In  the 
meantime  trade  gradually  increased,  and  there  grew  up 
the  importation  of  opium  from  India  and  the  wonderful 
eagerness  of  the  multitude  to  purchase  and  smoke  it. 
Before  1767  the  import  rarely  exceeded  200  chests,  but 
that  year  it  amounted  to  1,000.  In  1792  the  British 
Government  wisely  sent  an  Embassy  under  Lord 
Macartney  to  Peking  with  presents  to  the  Emperor,  to 
place  the  relations  between  the  two  countries  on  a  secure 
and  proper  footing;  but,  though  the  Ambassador  and 
members  of  his  suite  were  courteously  treated,  the  main 
objects  were  not  accomplished.  In  1800  an  imperial 
edict  expressly  prohibited  the  importation  of  opium,  and 
threatened  all  Chinese  who  smoked  it  with  condign  pun- 
ishment. It  had  been  before  a  smuggling  traffic,  and 
henceforth  there  could  be  no  doubt  of  its  real  character. 


470  MODERN  EUROPE 

Still  it  went  on  and  increased  from  year  to  year.  A 
second  Embassy  from  Great  Britain  in  1816  was  dis- 
missed from  Peking  suddenly  and  contumeliously  be- 
cause the  Ambassador  would  not  perform  the  ceremony 
of  San  kwet  chiu.  k'au  ("the  repeated  prostrations"),  and 
thereby  acknowledge  his  own  Sovereign  to  be  but  a 
vassal  of  the  Empire. 

So  things  went  on  till  the  charter  of  the  East  India 
Company  expired  in  1834,  and  the  head  of  its  factory 
was  superseded  by  a  representative  of  the  Sovereign  of 
Great  Britain,  who  could  not  conduct  intercourse  with 
the  Hongkong  merchants  as  the  others  had  done.  The 
two  Nations  were  brought  defiantly  face  to  face.  On 
the  one  side  was  a  resistless  force,  determined  to  prose- 
cute its  enterprise  for  the  enlargement  of  its  trade,  and 
the  conduct  of  it  as  with  an  equal  Nation;  on  the  other 
side  was  the  old  Empire  seeming  to  be  unconscious  of 
its  weakness,  determined  not  to  acknowledge  the  claim 
of  equality,  and  confident  of  its  power  to  suppress  the 
import  of  opium.  The  Government  of  China  made  its 
grand  and  final  effort  in  1839,  and  in  the  spring  of  that 
year  the  famous  Lin  Tseh-shii  was  appointed  to  the 
Governor-Generalship  of  the  Kwang  provinces,  and  to 
bring  the  barbarians  to  reason.  Out  of  his  measures 
came  the  first  war,  which  was  declared  by  Great  Britain 
against  China  in  1840.  There  could  be  no  doubt  as  to 
the  result  in  so  unequal  a  contest;  and  we  hurry  to  its 
close  at  Nanking,  the  old  capital  of  the  Empire,  where 
a  treaty  of  peace  was  signed  August  29,  1842,  on  board 
Her  Majesty's  Ship  Cornwallis,  The  principal  articles 
were  that  the  Island  of  Hongkong  should  be  ceded  to 
Great  Britain;  that  the  ports  of  Canton,  Amoy,  Fu-Chau 
(in  Fu-Chien),  Ning-po  (in  Cheh-chiang),  and  Shang- 
hai (in  Chiang-su),  should  be  opened  to  British  trade 


AWAKENING  OF  ASIA  471 

and  residence;  and  that  thereafter  official  correspond- 
ence should  be  conducted  on  terms  of  equality  accord- 
ing to  the  standing  of  the  parties.  Nothing  was  said  in 
the  treaty  on  the  subject  of  opium,  but  the  smuggling 
traffic  in  it  went  on  as  before. 

Before  fifteen  years  had  passed  away,  because  of 
troubles  at  Canton,  not  at  all  creditable  to  Great  Britain, 
and  the  obstinacy  of  the  Governor-General  Yeh  Ming-chin, 
in  refusing  to  meet  Sir  John  Bowring,  it  was  thought 
necessary  by  the  British  Government  that  war  should  be 
commenced  against  China  again.  In  this  undertaking 
France  joined.  Canton  was  taken  December  29,  1857, 
when  Yeh  was  captured  and  sent  a  prisoner  to  Calcutta. 
Canton  being  now  in  the  possession  of  the  allies,  arrange- 
ments were  made  for  its  government  by  a  joint  commis- 
sion, and  in  February,  1858,  the  allied  plenipotentiaries, 
accompanied  by  the  commissioners  of  the  United  States 
and  Russia  as  non-combatants,  proceeded  to  the  north  to 
lay  their  demands  before  the  Emperor  at  Peking.  There 
was  not  so  much  fighting  as  there  had  been  in  1842,  and 
(June  26th)  a  second  treaty  was  concluded  at  Tien-tsin, 
renewing  and  confirming  the  former,  but  with  many 
important  additional  stipulations,  the  most  important  of 
which  were  that  the  Sovereigns  of  Great  Britain  and  China 
might,  if  they  saw  fit,  appoint  ambassadors,  ministers,  or 
other  diplomatic  agents  to  their  respective  courts;  and  that 
the  British  representative  should  not  be  required  to  per- 
form any  ceremony  derogatory  to  him  as  representing  the 
Sovereign  of  an  independent  Nation  on  an  equality  with 
China.  Other  stipulations  provided  for  the  protection  of 
Christian  missionaries  and  their  converts;  for  liberty  for 
British  subjects  to  travel,  for  their  pleasure  or  for  purposes 
of  trade,  under  passports,  into  all  parts  of  the  interior  of 
the  country;  for  the  opening  of  five  additional  ports  for 


472  MODERN  EUROPE 

commerce — Niu-chwang  (in  Shing-king,  the  chief  prov- 
ince of  Manchuria),  Tang-chau  (with  port  of  Che-foo  in 
Shan-tung),  Tai-wan  (Formosa),  several  ports  of  Ch'ao- 
chau  (with  port  of  Swa-tau,  in  Kwang-tung),  and  Chi'ung 
(Kiung-chan  in  Hai-nan) — and  for  authority  for  mer- 
chant ships  to  trade  on  the  Yang-tsze  river,  ports  on  which 
would  be  opened  when  the  rebellion  should  have  been  put 
down  and  peace  and  order  restored.  (The  river  was  not 
opened  to  steamer  traffic  until  1888.)  Treaties  on  the 
same  lines  were  concluded  with  the  United  States,  France, 
and  Russia.  A  revision  of  the  tariff  regulations  of  1842 
was  to  take  place  subsequently  in  the  year  at  Shanghai. 
This  was  done  in  October,  and  then  opium  was  entered 
among  the  legitimate  articles  of  import,  and  the  arrange- 
ment confirmed  that  the  Government  should  employ  a 
foreign  official  in  the  collection  of  all  maritime  duties. 

It  might  seem  that  these  treaties  secured  everything 
which  foreign  Nations  could  require,  and  that  the  humilia- 
tion of  the  Chinese  Government  was  complete.  But  they 
were  nearly  wrecked  by  one  concluding  stipulation  in  all 
of  them  but  that  of  the  United  States,  that  the  ratifica- 
tions of  them  should  be  exchanged  at  Peking  within  a 
year.  The  Emperor  and  his  advisors,  when  the  pressure 
of  the  force  at  Tien-tsin  was  removed,  could  not  bear  the 
thought  of  the  embassies  entering  the  sacred  capital,  and 
foolishly  cast  about  to  escape  from  the  condition.  The 
fort  at  Ta-ku,  guarding  the  entrance  to  the  Pei-ho,  and 
the  approach  to  Tien-tsin  and  thence  to  Peking  were 
rebuilt  and  strongly  fortified.  When  the  English,  French, 
and  American  ministers  returned  to  Shanghai  with  the 
ratified  treaties,  in  1859,  the  Chinese  commissioners  who 
had  signed  them  at  Tien-tsin  were  awaiting  them  and 
urged  that  the  ratification  should  be  exchanged  there. 
The  French  and  English  ministers  then  insisted  on  pro- 


AWAKENING  OF  ASIA  473 

ceeding  to  Peking  as  the  place  nominated  for  the  exchange. 
But  when  they  arrived  at  the  mouth  of  the  river,  with  the 
gunboats  under  their  command,  they  were  unable  to  force 
the  defenses.  A  severe  engagement  ensued,  and  the  allied 
forces  sustained  a  repulse  with  a  heavy  loss.  It  was  the  one 
victory  gained  by  the  Chinese.  The  British  and  French 
Governments  took  immediate  action.  A  third  expedition 
under  the  same  plenipotentiaries  as  before,  with  a  force  of 
nearly  20,000  men,  was  at  the  same  place  in  little  more  than 
a  year.  The  forts  were  taken  on  August  2ist,  and  on  the 
25th  the  plenipotentiaries  were  again  established  in  Tien- 
tsin. We  can  only  refer  to  their  march  in  September  on 
Peking,  with  all  its  exciting  details.  The  Emperor, 
Hsien-fung,  fled  to  Jeh-ho,  in  the  north  of  Chih-li,  the 
imperial  summer  retreat;  and  his  brother,  Prince  Kung, 
whose  name  is  well  known,  came  to  the  front  in  the  man- 
agement of  affairs.  On  October  I3th  he  surrendered  the 
northeast  gate  of  the  city;  and  the  24th  the  treaties  were 
exchanged,  and  an  additional  convention  signed,  by  which, 
of  course,  an  additional  indemnity  was  exacted  from 
the  Chinese,  and  an  arrangement  made  about  the  emigra- 
tion of  coolies,  which  had  become  a  crying  scandal,  while 
a  small  piece  of  the  continent  of  the  Empire  opposite  to 
Hongkong  was  ceded  to  that  colony.  So  it  was  that  the 
attempt  of  China  to  keep  itself  aloof  from  the  rest  of  the 
world  came  to  an  end,  and  a  new  era  in  the  history  of  the 
Empire  was  initiated. 

Hsien-fung  died  at  Jeh-ho  in  August,  1861,  leaving 
the  Empire  to  his  young  son,  only  six  years  old.  A  cabal 
at  Jeh-ho  tried  to  keep  the  boy  in  their  possession,  but  his 
uncle,  Prince  Kung,  succeeded  in  getting  him  to  Peking, 
and  along  with  the  young  Emperor's  mother  and  the 
Empress  Dowager,  by  whom  Hsien-fung  had  had  no  child, 
loyally  and  successfully  administered  a  regency  in  accord- 


474  MODERN  EUROPE 

ance  with  the  new  conditions  of  the  Government.  The 
style  of  the  reign  was  Tung-chi,  or  Government  in  Union; 
February  23,  1873,  the  Emperor  announced  publicly, 
and  specially  to  the  foreign  ministers,  that  he  had  taken 
the  Government  into  his  own  hands.  This  brought  up  a 
question  of  an  audience,  but,  after  a  good  deal  of  protocol- 
ing and  negotiating,  it  was  finally  settled,  on  June  29th,  by 
the  Emperor's  receiving  all  the  ministers  then  in  Peking 
without  the  ceremony  of  prostration.  His  reign  did  not 
last  long,  for  he  died  in  January,  1875.  As  he  left  no 
son,  and  had  designated  no  successor,  the  members  of  the 
imperial  house,  according  to  the  rules  in  such  a  case, 
appointed  as  his  successor  Tsai-Tien,  the  son  of  Prince 
Shun,  a  younger  brother  of  Prince  Kung.  The  new  sov- 
ereign was  a  child  of  four  years  old,  and  began  to  reign 
under  the  style  of  Kwang  Hsu,  or  "The  Illustrious  Suc- 
cession." He  assumed  the  government  in  March,  1887. 
Affairs  in  China  proceeded  peaceably  under  the  domina- 
tion of  Li  Hung  Chang,*  who  was  wise  enough  to  realize 
the  foolishness  of  a  war  with  a  European  power,  until  the 
war  with  Japan  over  Corea.  That  war  was  a  rude  awak- 
ening for  China  and  its  results  seemed  to  have  threatened 
the  dynasty.  But  of  the  later  developments,  aside  from 
the  cessions  of  territory  which  have  been  mentioned,  it  is 
not  possible  to  speak  historically  at  present,  as  the  informa- 
tion, aside  from  the  cessions,  which  have  been  mentioned, 
is  meager  and  comes  from  biased  sources,  whether  British, 
German,  Russian,  or  French. 

*See  Volume  "Foreign  Statesmen." 


PARTITION  OF  AFRICA 

There  is  no  more  interesting  page  in  the  recent  his- 
tory of  the  world  than  that  which  tells  of  the  marvelous 
development  of  Africa.  Each  successive  map  of  the  con- 
tinent shows  more  of  the  country  opened  up  and  colonized 
by  Europeans.  How  rapid  this  progress  has  been  and 
how  different  is  a  map  of  Africa  now  from  those  which 
called  forth  those  skeptical  lines  of  Swift's: 

So  geographers,  Afric  maps 
With  savage  pictures  fill  their  gaps, 
And  o'er  uninhabitable  downs 
Place  elephants  for  want  of  towns. 

To-day  out  of  eleven  and  a  half  million  square  miles 
that  Africa  contains,  there  are  only  about  one  and  a  half 
still  unappropriated  by  Europeans.  It  will  be  of  interest 
to  trace  briefly  the  history  of  the  colonization  of  Africa. 
Passing  over  the  invasion  of  the  Phoenicians,  Carthagin- 
ians, Greeks,  and  Romans,  and  later  on  the  Arabs  (see 
Ancient  History),  we  find  that  the  Portuguese  were  the 
first  to  institute  the  European  colonization  of  the  continent. 
Cape  after  cape  was  rounded  by  the  Portuguese  on  the 
west  coast  until  Diaz  discovered  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope 
in  1487.  Ten  years  later  Vasco  da  Gama  doubled  the 
Cape  and  landed  at  and  named  Natal,  and  proceeded  up  the 
coast  to  Mombasa.  The  Portuguese  founded  settlements 
in  various  parts  and  made  several  discoveries  in  the  inter- 
ior. It  was  not  until  1553  that  the  first  British  ships  were 
fitted  out  for  an  expedition  to  Africa.  France  also,  about 
this  time,  began  to  send  vessels  to  Guinea,  and  by  the 
middle  of  the  Fifteenth  Century  there  was  quite  a  busy 
trade  going  on  with  Africa. 

475 


476  MODERN  EUROPE 

In  1588  Queen  Elizabeth  granted  a  patent  for  the  first 
English  chartered  African  Company.  It  is  singular  to 
note  how  large  a  part  chartered  companies  have  played  in 
English  colonization.  Then  in  1581  the  Dutch  began  to 
look  for  new  fields  for  commerce,  and  turned  their  eyes 
toward  Africa.  They  rapidly  drove  out  Spain  and  Portu- 
gal— for  by  this  time  Spain  had  dispossessed  Portu- 
gal— and  France  and  England,  too,  from  the  coast  of 
Guinea.  Fort  Elmina  was  taken  by  the  Dutch  in  1637. 
An  effort  was  made  to  arrest  the  advance  of  the  Dutch  in 
1662,  when  another  British  company  was  chartered  by 
Charles  II.  This  caused  a  war,  and  the  English  captured 
Fort  Seconda,  and  Cape  Coast  Castle.  Then  we  find 
other  countries  founding  settlements,  but  France  was  the 
only  one  to  make  headway.  Late  in  the  Seventeenth  Cen- 
tury France  was  undoubtedly  the  most  powerful  European 
power  in  Africa.  Not  much  was  done  during  the  Eight- 
eenth Century,  possibly  because  of  war  in  Europe,  but  it 
must  not  be  forgotten  that  in  1795  the  English  took  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope  from  the  Dutch.  The  beginning  of 
the  Nineteenth  Century  saw  a  great  struggle  between 
France  and  England  in  Africa  as  well  as  in  Europe.  In 
1815  Cape  Colony  was  finally  made  over  to  England.  The 
French  in  1830  seized  Algeria,  and  both  Nations  steadily 
increased  their  possessions.  For  the  last  thirty  years  vari- 
ous European  explorers,  and  the  American  Stanley,  have 
been  penetrating  deep  into  the  heart  of  Africa.  (  See  vol- 
ume "Achievements  of  the  Nineteenth  Century.")  It 
was  after  Germany  had  become  a  United  Empire  that  she, 
too,  began  to  cast  longing  eyes  on  all  possible  colonies  in 
Africa.  In  1876  the  famous  Brussels  Conference  was 
held  to  discuss  the  question  of  exploring  and  civilizing  the 
continent.  The  action  of  the  King  of  the  Belgians  in  his 
desire  to  form  an  African  state  on  the  Congo  excited  the 


PARTITION  OF  AFRICA  477 

ambition  of  other  European  powers  and  soon  there  began 
early  in  the  eighties,  the  first  signs  of  what  has  been  termed 
"the  scramble  for  Africa."  So  the  struggle,  which  seemed 
to  reach  a  climax  about  five  or  six  years  ago,  has  gone  on 
until  now,  when  there  is  but  little  worth  fighting  for  left, 
though  that  little  is  sometimes  a  source  of  trouble,  as,  for 
instance,  the  Fashoda  incident  between  France  and  Eng- 
land in  1898.  Out  of  the  scramble  France  has  come  with 
a  larger  slice  of  territory  than  any  other  power.  She  pos- 
sesses all-  the  country  from  Algeria  and  Tunis  to  the 
Guinea  coast,  the  bulk  of  the  Sahara,  the  territory  watered 
by  the  Senegal,  and  the  best  of  that  watered  by  the  upper 
Niger.  Then  she  also  owns  a  great  block  between  the 
Cameroons  and  the  Congo.  She  has  besides,  Madagascar 
and  Obok.  Germany  has  fared  badly,  her  possessions 
being  of  no  great  value.  Portugal,  the  pioneer,  has  only 
900,000  miles  left.  Italy,  after  a  war  with  Abysinnia, 
now  possesses  a  long  stretch  of  territory  in  the  Red  Sea. 
Spain  possesses  a  large  tract  of  desert  in  the  Western 
Sahara,  Fernando  Po,  and  about  800  square  miles  in 
Guinea.  The  Congo  Free  State,  an  appanage  of  Bel- 
gium, covers  900,000  square  miles  and  is  a  country  capable 
of  development.  Great  Britain  holds  the  second  largest 
share  of  territory  in  Africa.  Her  possessions  in  the  South 
have  proved  more  and  more  valuable,  and  British  South 
Africa  seems  likely  easily  to  surpass  the  rest  of  the  con- 
tinent in  proportion  to  population  and  products.  Thus 
Africa  has  played  a  large  part  in  the  politics  of  Europe  in 
recent  years. 

The  following  statistics,  compiled  by  E.  G.  Ravenstein, 
and  published  in  1893,  in  Scot  Keltic's  admirable  work, 
"The  Partition  of  Africa,"  will  convey  a  good  idea  of  the 
progress  made  by  European  countries  in  Africa  of  late 
years : 


478 


MODERN  EUROPE 


GREAT  BRITAIN. 

Area, 

sq.  m.  Population. 

Gambia   , 2,700  50,000 

Sierra  Leone 15,000  275,000 

Gold  Coast 46,600  1,905,0-0 

Lagos  and  Yoruba 21,100  3,000,000 

Niger  Territories  and  Oil  River ,  269,500  17,500,000 

British  Guinea  354,9OO  22,730,000 

Cape  Colony  (with  Pondoland  and  Walvisch 

Bay)  , 225,940  1,728,000 

Basutoland  10,300  219,000 

Natal   20,460  544,ooo 

Zulu  and  Tonga  Lands 9,79°  173,000 

British  Bechuanaland 71,43°  50,000 

Bechuanaland  (Protectorate)   ,  99,5oo  80,000 

Matabele,  Mashona,  and  Nyasa  Lands,  etc. . .  524,000  1,600,000 

British  South  Africa 961,420  4,394,000 

Zanzibar  (Protectorate  with  Northern  Ports).  1,040  200,000 

Ibea  to  6  deg.  N.  Lat 468,000  6,500,000 

Rest  to  Egyptian  Frontier 745,000  6,000,000 

Northern  Somali  Coast 40,000  200,000 

Sokotra 1,380  10,000 

British  East  Africa 1,255,420  12,910,000 

Mauritius  and  Dependencies 1,030  393,000 

St.  Helena,  Ascension,  and  Tristan  da  Cunha.  130  6,500 


Total — British  Africa 2,572,900      40,433,500 


FRANCE. 


Tunis  

Algeria 257,600 

Sahara 1,550,000 

Senegambia 15,000 


Area, 

sq.  m.      Population. 
44,800        1,500,000 
3,900,000 
1,100,000 
180,000 


PARTITION  OF  AFRICA 


479 


Gold  and  Benin  Coasts 50,000  600,000 

Soudan  and  Guinea 525,000  10,000,000 

French  Congo  and  Gaboon 320,000  6,000,000 

Tajura  Bay  (Obok  and  Sibati) 7,700  70,000 

Madagascar  and  Dependencies 228,000  3,520,000 

Comoros  i         760  64,000 

Reunion  770  165,000 


Total — French  Africa 2,999,630      27,099.000 


GERMANY. 

Area, 

sq.  m.  Population. 

Togoland 16,000  1,150,000 

Cameroons  130,000  2,600,000 

South- West  Africa  322,450  1 17,000 

East  Africa  (Mafia) 353, 500  2,000,000 


Total — German  Africa 821,950        5,867,000 


ITALY. 

Area, 

sq.  m.  Population. 

Eritrea 52,000  300,000 

Abyssinia 195,000  4,500,000 

Somal,  Galla,  etc 355,ooo  1,500,000 

Total— Italian  Africa  602,000  6.300,000 

PORTUGAL. 

Area, 

sq.  m.  Population. 

Portuguese  Guinea  11,600  150,000 

Angola  517,200  3,500,000 

Mozambique 310,000  1,500,000 

Maderia   320  I34,ooo 

Cape  Verde  Islands i,49O  m.ooo 

St.  Thome  and  Principe 460  21,000 


Total— Portuguese  Africa  841,070        5,416.000 


480  MODERN  EUROPE 

SPAIN. 

Area, 

sq.  m.      Population. 

Tetuan,  etc  3O  16,000 

Sahara  (Rio  de  Oro,  etc) 210,000  100,000 

Canaries  2,940  288,000 

Gulf  of  Guinea,  etc 800  33,000 


Total— Spanish  Africa 213,770  437,ooo 

SUMMARY. 

Area, 

sq.  m.  Population. 

Great  Britain 2,572,900  4O,433,5oo 

France  -..  2,999,630  27,099,000 

Germany  . .   .'. 821,950  5,867,000 

Italy  602,000  6,300,000 

Portugal  841,070  5,416,000 

Spain  213,770  437,000 

Congo  State  (Belgium) 864,000  15,600,000 

Boer  Republic  and  Swaziland 168,120  948,000 

Liberia  37,ooo  1,000,000 

Turkey  (Egypt  and  Tripoli) 836,000  7,980,000 

Unappropriated 1,486,710  23,919,500 

Lakes  Chad,  Victoria,  Tanganyika,   Nyassa, 

etc 67,850     


Total— Africa 11,511,000     135,000,000 

The  story  of  the  acquisition  of  these  colonies  is  one  of 
constant  little  wars  which  are  not  at  present  worth  a  place 
in  history  except  in  connection  with  the  history  of  the 
mother  country,  where  mention  has  been  made  of  them 
when  essential.  More  interesting  is  the  story  of  the  efforts 
of  the  independent  states  to  preserve  their  integrity. 

The  position  and  condition  of  Egypt  are  unparalleled. 
Nominally  a  province  of  the  Ottoman  Empire,  it  is  also 
autonomous,  and  under  the  rule  of  the  Khedive  by  Fir- 
mans of  the  Sultan  in  1841,  1866,  1867,  1879,  and  1892, 
subject  to  the  annual  payment  of  a  tribute  of  £682,092. 


PARTITION  OF  AFRICA  481 

It  is  at  the  same  time  entirely  dependent  for  its  existence 
as  a  sovereign  state  upon  the  will  of  stronger  powers, 
England  at  the  present  moment  being  dominant.  The 
title  of  Khedive  was  given  by  Firman  of  May  14,  1867, 
and  is  hereditary.  In  consequence  of  a  military  revolt, 
headed  by  Arabi  Pasha,  which  the  Khedive  was  powerless 
to  subdue,  England  was  most  unwillingly  compelled  to 
interfere,  and  is  now  in  occupation  of  Egypt,  and  for 
many  years  must  continue  to  exercise  a  very  powerful  in- 
fluence over  the  fortunes  of  the  country.  While  British 
troops  were  reestablishing  the  authority  of  the  Khedive 
in  Egypt,  a  revolution,  headed  by  Mohammed  Ahmed, 
proclaimed  himself  a  Mahdi,  broke  out  in  the  Egyptian 
territories  in  the  Soudan.  The  Egyptian  troops  having 
been  beaten  in  the  field,  General  Gordon  volunteered  to 
proceed  to  Khartoum  to  withdraw  the  garrisons.  He  fell, 
dying  nobly  at  his  post  January  26,  1885,  before  an  Eng- 
lish expedition,  sent  somewhat  tardily  to  his  relief,  could 
reach  him.  Since  then  the  whole  of  the  upper  valley  of 
the  Nile  and  the  vast  territory  which  had  been  brought 
under  Egyptian  rule,  almost  as  far  as  the  equator,  had 
been  abandoned  until  the  year  1896,  when  a  military  ex- 
pedition, under  the  Sirdar,  started  for  the  south.  The 
province  of  Dongola  was  recovered  in  that  year,  and  Ber- 
ber, in  1897,  and  Khartoum,  in  1898 — a  series  of  brilliant 
victories  that  covered  General  Kitchner  with  glory.  There 
is  a  railroad  from  Cairo  to  Dongola,  which  is  now  being 
extended  to  Berber. 

The  most  powerful  state  in  Africa  is  Abyssinia,  which 
has  been  able  to  resist  all  efforts  for  its  annexation.  The 
Abyssinians  are  Christians,  and  their  Kings  claim  descent 
from  Menelek,  the  son  of  Solomon,  by  the  Queen  of 
Sheba.  They  themselves  were  converted  to  Christianity 
probably  about  600  A.  D.  by  monks  from  Egypt,  but 
Voi..  2  —  31 


482  MODERN  EUROPE 

have  long  been  isolated  from  the  rest  of  the  Christian 
world.  At  the  end  of  the  Fifteenth  Century,  an  attempt 
was  made  by  the  Jesuits,  under  the  Portuguese  power, 
to  bring  the  Abyssinian  church  under  the  papacy.  For  a 
time  this  event  seemed  likely;  but,  before  the  middle  of 
the  Seventeenth  Century,  the  Jesuit  influence  was  over- 
thrown and  expelled,  and  the  Abyssinian  church  reverted 
to  its  eastern  forms,  and  .no  trace  of  Jesuit  influence  re- 
mained. There  is  no  popular  literature,  and  no  educa- 
tion; there  is  a  legal  code  said  to  be  derived  from  Con- 
stantine,  but  practically  government  is  autocratic,  quali- 
fied by  the  power  of  revolt.  There  is  no  standing  army, 
but  all  are  soldiers,  and  in  the  struggle  against  Italy,  the 
Emperor's  army  probably  numbered  100,000,  there  being 
certainly  that  number  of  modern  rifles  in  the  country, 
England  came  into  conflict  with  Abyssinia  in  1867-68, 
when  the  then  capital,  Magala,  was  occupied  by  a  British 
army  under  General  Napier  (Lord  Napier,  of  Magdala). 
In  1889  the  Italians  made  a  treaty  with  King  Menelek, 
tinder  which  they  claimed  a  protectorate  over  Abyssinia; 
this  was  repudiated  by  Menelek  in  1893,  and  finally  given 
up  after  the  Italian  defeat  at  Adowa  (March,  1896).  The 
subsequent  treaty  with  Italy  confined  the  Italian  protec- 
torate to  a  mere  strip  along  the  coast.  Since  that  date, 
Russian,  French,  and  English  missions  have  visited  King 
Menelek  at  his  new  capital,  Abdis  Abba;  the  French 
mission,  under  Lagarde,  and  the  English  mission,  under 
Rennell  Rodd. 

The  Transvaal,  or  South  African  Republic,  was 
founded  in  1840  by  Boers,  who,  dissatisfied  with  British 
rule,  had  migrated  from  Cape  Colony,  and  its  independ- 
ence was  recognized  by  the  British  crown  in  1852.  In 
1877,  when  Sekukuni  had  defeated  the  Boers,  and  it  was 
feared  that  the  whole  of  South  Africa  might  become  in- 


PARTITION  OF  AFRICA  483 

volved  in  a  disastrous  native  war,  Sir  Theophilus  Shep- 
stone  was  dispatched  to  the  Transvaal.  He  found  the 
public  treasury  empty,  and  the  country  in  a  state  of  an- 
archy; to  save  it  from  further  disaster,  he  proclaimed  it 
British  territory.  Protests  against  this  usurpation  were 
unheeded,  and  on  December  16,  1880,  at  Heidelberg,  the 
flag  of  the  Republic  was  once  more  hoisted,  and  after  the 
battle  of  Majuba  Hill  (February  27.  1881),  Britain  once 
more  recognized  its  independence.  By  the  Convention  of 
February  27,  1884,  Britain  merely  retains  the  power  of 
vetoing  any  treaty  which  the  Republic  may  make  with  all 
foreign  powers,  except  the  Orange  Free  State.  Swazi- 
land was  placed  under  the  administration  of  the  Republic 
in  1894,  the  rights  of  the  natives  (who  retain  their  king) 
being  safeguarded.  Dr.  Jameson's  invasion  of  the  Re- 
public, in  support  of  an  expected  rising  of  a  portion  of 
the  foreign  population  at  Johannesburg  speedily  came  to 
an  end  with  a  surrender  of  the  invaders  on  January  i, 
1896. 

South  of  the  Transvaal  is  the  Orange  Free  State, 
which  was  founded  by  Dutch  emigrants  from  Cape  Col- 
ony. The  country  was  proclaimed  British  territory  by  Sir 
Henry  Smith,  in  1848,  but,  by  the  convention  entered 
into  on  the  23d  of  February,  1854,  between  the  British 
commissioner  and  the  representatives  of  the  people,  the 
inhabitants  were  declared  a  free  and  independent  people. 
They  immediately  formed  a  republic,  which  has  led  a  quiet 
existence  free  from  the  internal  disorders  that  have  marked 
the  history  of  its  northern  neighbor. 

Liberia  was  founded  by  the  American  Colonization 
Society  in  1820,  and  has  been  recognized  by  the  Euro- 
pean powers  as  an  independent  state  since  1847.  During 
the  last  fifty  years  it  has,  however,  lost  much  territory  to 
the  adjacent  British  and  French  colonies. 


484  MODERN  EUROPE 

One  absolute  monarchy  survives  in  Africa — Morocco, 
ruled  by  a  Sultan,  who  is,  however,  in  constant  conflict 
with  his  warrior  chiefs.  The  ancient  home  of  the  Moors, 
whose  exploits  have  been  told  in  the  first  volume  of  this 
work,  has  sunk  into  a  state  of  barbarism  and  its  314,000 
square  miles  of  territory  will  sooner  or  later  fall  prey  to 
a  European  Nation.  Constant  intrigues  with  that  end 
in  view  are  conducted  by  the  French  and  the  English. 


AUSTRALIA 

The  insular  region,  of  continental  size,  once  known 
as  New  Holland,  probably  was  first  discovered  by  a  Por- 
tuguese navigator  in  1601,  though  certain  French  maps 
of  1542  claim  to  contain  the  country  under  the  name  of 
Jave  la  Grande,  the  discovery  at  that  date,  if  true,  being 
still  due  to  the  Portuguese.  In  1606,  Torres,  a  Spaniard, 
passed  through  the  strait  that  now  bears  his  name,  between 
Australia  and  New  Guinea.  The  early  presence  of  the 
Dutch  explorers  is  proved  by  such  names  as  Dirk  Hertog 
Island,  De  Witt  Land,  and  many  others,  since  changed, 
which  show  that  they  visited  nearly  all  the  northern  and 
western,  with  much  of  the  southern  coast  line.  In  1642 
Jan  Abel  Tasman  sailed  from  Batavia  with  an  expedition 
which  reached  the  island  now  called  by  the  name  of  its 
discoverer,  but  which  he  styled  Van  Diemen's  Land,  in 
honor  of  the  Dutch  Governor  of  the  East  Indian  Colony. 
He  sailed  round  its  southern  coast  and  for  nearly  a 
Century  and  a  half  the  country  was  believed  to  form  a 
part  of  the  great  Southern  Continent.  In  his  eastward 
course,  Tasman  came  upon  New  Zealand  and  then 
returned  to  Batavia  by  the  north  of  New  Guinea.  In  1664 
the  States  General  gave  the  name  of  New  Holland  to  the 
western  part  of  the  region  of  which  their  countrymen  had 
at  that  time  seen  more  than  any  other  navigators.  The 
land  was  then  almost  forgotten  in  Europe,  save  for  the 
visit  of  the  enterprising  and  skillful  mariner,  William 
Dampier,  who  is  the  first  Englishman  known  to  have 
landed  on  the  Australian  shore.  This  adventurous  man, 
who  had  fought  in  the  Dutch  wars  of  Charles  II,  had  cut 

485 


486  MODERN  EUROPE 

logwood  on  the  coast  of  Campeachy  Bay,  commanded  a 
privateer  against  the  Spaniards  in  American  waters,  and 
sailed  round  the  world,  was  appointed,  in  1698,  to  the  com- 
mand of  a  sloop  of  war  in  the  British  navy.  In  this  vessel 
he  was  dispatched  by  William  III  on  a  voyage  of  discov- 
ery to  the  Australian  seas,  where  he  visited  the  western 
coast,  caught  sight  of  kangaroos,  and  of  some  of  the  ill- 
looking  natives,  and  bestowed  the  name  of  Shark's  Bay 
on  an  inlet  then  and  now  infested  by  the  sailor's  foe.  The 
first  British  occupation  of  any  part  of  the  Southern  Con- 
tinent dates  from  the  closing  years  of  the  Eighteenth 
Century.  In  October,  1769,  Cook  arrived  at  New  Zealand 
and  spent  six  months  in  examining  the  shores.  The  east- 
ern coast  of  Australia  was  then  attentively  surveyed,  and 
possession  of  the  land  under  the  name  of  New  South  Wales 
was  formally  claimed  for  the  Sovereign  of  Britain.  An 
inlet  on  the  southeast  shore  received  the  name  of  Botany 
Bay,  because  of  new  plants  there  observed. 

The  first  settlement  made  on  Australian  soil  was  due 
to  the  want  of  a  place  of  banishment  for  criminals  from 
the  British  Isles.  The  loss  of  the  American  Colonies, 
whither  convicts  had  been  sent  to  compulsory  work  in  the 
plantations,  had  caused  the  Government  to  place  prisoners 
on  board  hulks  or  dismantled  men-of-war.  An  outlet  was 
sought  for  these  seething  and  unwholesome  communities 
of  crime,  and  Botany  Bay  occurred  to  mind  as  a  spot 
fitted  to  a  penal  colony.  In  May,  1787,  a  fleet  of  eleven 
sail,  commanded  by  Captain  Phillip,  bore  from  Ports- 
mouth nearly  800  convicts,  with  two  or  three  hundred  offi- 
cials, guards,  and  other  free  settlers.  In  January,  1788, 
the  expedition  arrived  at  Botany  Bay,  but  Phillip,  as  Gov- 
ernor of  New  South  Wales,  did  not  approve  of  the  site  and, 
entering  the  splendid  harbor  of  Port  Jackson  to  the  north, 
he  laid  on  the  shore  of  one  of  its  many  inlets,  the  founda- 


AUSTRALIA  487 

tions  of  the  town  of  Sydney,  named  after  the  peer  who 
was  then  in  charge  of  colonial  affairs.  It  was  only  by  slovr 
degrees  that  the  new  colony  received  any  large  number  of 
free  emigrants  and  began  to  emerge  from  the  state  of  a 
mere  convict  settlement.  For  more  than  thirty  years  the 
chief  work  done  lay  in  the  forced  labor  of  criminals 
employed  in  constructing  public  buildings,  in  making 
roads,  and  in  clearing  the  land.  The  system  of  "assign- 
ment," by  which  convicts  were  allotted  as  servants  to  free 
settlers  was  introduced  after  the  year  1821,  when  a  tide 
of  emigration  began  to  set  in  from  the  mother  country. 
The  crossing  of  the  Blue  Mountains  in  1813  laid  open  to 
newcomers  a  great  territory  which  tempted  further 
advance.  The  future  prosperity  of  New  South  Wales  was 
to  lie  in  sheep  farming,  for  which  the  land  was  soon  found 
to  be  admirably  suited.  In  1797,  Captain  Mac  Arthur 
introduced,  from  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  some  rams  and 
ewes  of  the  pure  Spanish  Merino  breed,  and  excellent 
results  were  gained  from  the  crossing  of  this  stock  with  the 
coarse  wooled  sheep  already  in  the  colony.  From  this 
source  the  whole  country  was  in  time  supplied  with  the 
sheep,  which  have  produced  wealth  so  vast  in  wool  and 
tallow.  The  criminal  element  of  population  became,  in 
the  course  of  sixty  years  from  the  first  settlement,  greatly 
outnumbered  by  the  free  immigrants,  and  in  1841  the 
reception  of  convicts  ceased.  A  great  impulse  was  given 
ten  years  later  to  the  increase  in  population  in  this  part 
of  Australia  by  the  discovery  of  very  rich  deposits  of 
gold.  The  production  of  California  was  surpassed,  and 
the  event  was  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  Australia.  In 
1843  the  principle  of  representative  government  was  intro- 
duced, and  in  1855  "responsible  rule"  was  fully  estab- 
lished, with  a  Parliament  of  two  houses,  elected  by  voters 
without  any  Dropertv  qualification.  Education  is  under 


488  MODERN  EUROPE 

State  control,  and  the  flourishing  University  of  Sydney 
forms  the  apex  of  the  system. 

The  great  Colony  of  Victoria,  formerly  the  Port  Phil- 
lip District  of  New  South  Wales,  was  made  a  separate 
State  in  1861.  First  settled  in  1835,  this  territory  owed 
its  rapid  growth  in  population  and  wealth  to  sheep  farm- 
ing on  the  rich  pastures  near  the  River  Murray  on  the 
southeast  coast.  A  rush  of  immigration  came  with  the 
discovery  of  gold,  and  Melbourne,  the  capital,  increased 
within  a  few  years  from  a  population  little  exceeding 
20,000  to  five  times  the  number.  From  1851  to  the  end 
of  1888  the  value  of  the  gold  obtained  in  this  region 
exceeded  £220,000  sterling.  In  1888  the  value  of  the  wool 
exports  was  above  £5,000,000.  In  1854  the  Colony 
received  full  representative  government,  with  two  legis- 
lative chambers,  chosen  by  universal  suffrage.  Education 
is  free,  and  compulsory  between  the  ages  of  six  and  fifteen. 

The  settlement  of  South  Australia  had  its  origin  in  a 
body  of  immigrants  sent  out  from  England  in  1836  by 
an  association  formed  for  the  purpose  under  royal  charter, 
with  a  grant  of  land  from  the  Imperial  Government.  The 
site  for  the  capital,  named  Adelaide,  from  the  Queen,  was 
ohosen  on  the  River  Torrens,  near  the  Gulf  of  St.  Vincent. 
After  a  period  of  early  struggle,  the  Colony  was  helped 
by  the  discovery  of  rich  copper  mines,  and  then  checked 
for  a  time  by  the  outrush  to  the  tempting  gold-fields  of 
Victoria  and  New  South  Wales.  Under  financial  diffi- 
culties the  settlement  in  1841  was  transferred  to  the  crown, 
and  two  years  later  the  Governor  was  assisted  by  a  legis- 
lative Council,  the  members  of  which  in  1850  began  to  be 
chosen  by  the  colonists.  A  regular  Parliament  of  two 
houses  was  granted  in  1853.  Education  is  compulsory 
up  to  a  certain  standard.  In  1863  the  Colony  received 
from  the  Imperial  Government  the  provisional  cession  of 


AUSTRALIA  489 

the  vast  region  extending  northward  to  the  Indian  Ocean, 
once  called  Alexanderland  and  now  known  as  the  Northern 
Territory. 

The  first  settlement  of  Western  Australia  took  place 
in  1829,  soon  after  Captain  Fremantle  had  claimed  pos- 
session of  the  territory  in  the  name  of  George  IV.  The 
Colony  was  known  then  as  the  Swan  River  Settlement, 
and  for  a  long  period  its  progress  was  very  slow.  The 
population  is  mainly  found  in  the  Southwest,  near  the 
Swan  River  and  King  George  Sound.  Owing  to  the  scar- 
city of  labor,  the  colonists  petitioned  for  convicts  to  be 
sent  to  them,  and  in  1850  Western  Australia  became  a 
penal  settlement,  but  in  1868  transportation  was  abolished. 
The  Colony  is  provided  with  a  responsible  government 
in  the  shape  of  a  legislative  council.  Education  is  com- 
pulsory. 

Until  December,  1859,  the  most  northern  portion  of 
New  South  Wales  was  known  as  the  Moreton  Bay  Dis- 
trict. In  that  year  the  territory  became  a  separate  Colony, 
Queensland,  provided  with  a  Parliament  of  two  houses. 
This  flourishing  Colony,  with  rich  gold-fields  (discovered 
in  1858),  immense  numbers  of  sheep  and  cattle,  coal  mines 
and  large  crops  of  sugar  cane,  possesses  more  than  2,000 
miles  of  railway,  and  nearly  10,000  miles  of  telegraph, 
all  in  the  hands  of  the  Government. 

Tasmania,  the  best  watered  and  most  healthy  of  all 
these  great  Colonies,  was  first  settled  in  1803  as  a  penal 
offshoot  of  New  South  Wales.  For  fifty  years  the  country 
was  a  convict  settlement,  becoming  a  distinct  Colony  in 
1824.  In  the  earlier  days  of  its  history  progress  was  much 
retarded  by  the  hostility  of  the  natives,  a  race  now  extinct, 
and  by  the  evil  doings  of  convicts  who  escaped  from  con- 
trol and  became  harassing  depredators  known  as  bush- 
rangers.  Two  houses  form  the  Parliament. 


490  MODERN  EUROPE 

The  group  of  rising  States  under  the  brilliant  south- 
ern cross  is  completed  by  the  antipodean  isles  known  as 
New  Zealand.  They  were  first  seen  by  the  Dutch  navi- 
gator, Tasman,  in  1642,  when  a  boat's  crew  of  his  sailors 
were  massacred  by  the  natives.  After  the  visits  made  by 
Captain  Cook  the  coasts  were  sometimes  resorted  to  by 
sailors,  escaped  convicts,  and  maritime  adventurers.  The 
first  permanent  settlement  was  made  in  1815  by  mission- 
aries whose  labor  by  degrees  won  the  Maoris  from  their 
practice  of  cannibalism.  In  1833  a  British  resident  was 
appointed  subject  to  control  from  New  South  Wales;  and, 
in  1840,  under  the  New  Zealand  Company,  a  regular  Col- 
ony was  established.  In  1841  New  Zealand,  with  a  seat 
of  Government  at  Auckland,  was  formally  separated  from 
New  South  Wales,  and  in  1852  a  system  of  constitutional 
government  was  established.  In  1861  a  great  impulse  was 
given  to  immigration  by  the  discovery  of  the  gold-fields 
of  Otago,  and  the  generation  which  has  since  elapsed  has 
brought  remarkable  and  rapid  progress.  Two  thousand 
miles  of  railway  and  5,000  miles  of  telegraph,  made  and 
owned  by  the  Government,  aid  the  business  of  the  wealthy 
State,  which  possesses  17,000,000  sheep  and  has  supplied 
nearly  £50,000,000  value  of  gold,  annually  exports  wool 
worth  more  than  £3,000,000.  From  time  to  time  disputes 
have  arisen  with  the  Maoris,  who  have  been  rapidly  dying 
out. 

During  the  closing  years  of  the  Century  efforts  have 
been  made  to  combine  the  Australian  Colonies  in  a  Con- 
federation, plans  for  which  were  under  way  in  1899. 


UC  SOUTHBWIREGIONAI.  UBRAflY  MQUTY 


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